How the ACLJ is Defeating the Radical Left

This is Jay Sekulow, the ACLJ's fight for you against the radical left's agenda. 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.

Welcome to the broadcast. And you know, this whole month, of course, for us at the ACLJ is a matching challenge month. And we are getting near the very end of this month. We are close to where our goal is. We're about, I think it was 3% behind last year.

We want to kind of hit that goal again. So we're encouraging you to support the work of the ACLJ at ACLJ.org. Today's broadcast, we are going to take a look at kind of the depth and scope of the American Center for Law and Justice. We're going to focus on some of our work on the international front, which includes, by the way, the United Nations, our office in Jerusalem, of course. And, you know, last year we started this initiative called ACLJ Now More Than Ever.

And, Logan, that was your kind of brainchild on that. Tell us a little bit about what that was and we'll talk about the additions we made. Yeah, a lot of things happened in 2020, as we all can remember. And we decided that the ACLJ, as things were heating up beginning of 2021, our organization, as we kind of felt, you know, finding that sort of determining phrase that would take us through the next year, and now it's been a year and a half, was that the ACLJ was needed more than ever. And that has certainly been the case, as we have seen an interesting time in America, an interesting time in the world. And that even leads us up to recently with the overturning of Roe vs. Wade, how the ACLJ's fight is needed more than ever. Yeah, and that was, you know, folks, for everybody to remember, this was a 40-year fight, litigation-wise. It's not really over. No, I mean, now we've got to deal with the states, but to remove the obstacle of a constitutional right to take the life of an unborn child, which is contrary to moral values, to spiritual values, to Christian principles, Judeo-Christian principles, getting that removed as this, quote, constitutional right was a big step.

Now, of course, as we've been talking about, we've got to fight this on a state-by-state level, and don't kid yourself for a minute, these radical groups don't want life protected. But we also made some big additions in 2021. We brought on the former director of national intelligence, Rick Grenell, as a senior advisor to the ACLJ on national security and intelligence. We brought on the former secretary of state of the United States of America, Mike Pompeo, who is also the director of the CIA. So we brought on two members of the former administration's cabinet as part of the ACLJ, and this was to broaden the scope and effectiveness of our work, but also to be able to give you insight into what's happening. We've expanded our office work in Jerusalem with now someone dedicated in our office in Jerusalem now.

Yeah, we have dedicated offices in Israel. We have reports of them every week. You obviously have Rick and Mike, which have been, like you said, during times of uncertainty, it's interesting to hear perspective from someone who recently lived it, was in it. Of course, that was all 2021. We're halfway through 2022 right now in the month of July, and we're still expanding. Things are growing, but obviously we do know there's financial stresses. There's economic downturns that are happening right now. There's inflation that is happening, gas prices. All of those things have compounded, but doesn't mean the work here at the ACLJ stops. Doesn't even mean it goes on pause. It keeps going.

It did through 2020 through 2021 will continue in the foreseeable future to continue to fight for your rights and to give you guys the best amount of information on what's actually happening. I think that's something you hear a lot of people bloviate and say, you know, they tell you about how horrible things are, but they give you no hope and they give you no pathway to any sort of change. That's what we do differently here than a lot of places. You may hear our radio show and kind of combine us with all the other conservative talk shows you here. The difference is those guys are giving your opinion. Nothing wrong with it. They're giving your opinion. We're giving your opinion and then we're going to do the work. That's right. I mean, that's always been our hallmark is not just talking about it.

And then there's nothing wrong with talking about it. That's important to educate people, but also doing something about it, offering hope in trying and difficult times. So we want to encourage you as we get ready to put the last week here of our matching challenge and gear to go to ACLJ.org. That's ACLJ.org. Any amount you donate, we're going to get a matching gift for.

That's right. Visit ACLJ.org not only to donate, but to see the incredible content we're doing. But every donation made is effectively doubled.

So if you give $10 or someone on the other end saying we're going to match that and make it 20 and so on and so on. Again, that is at ACLJ.org. Go there for more information and to donate today.

All right. Welcome back to Sekulow. We're going to take your calls to 1-800-684-3110. In fact, I know that we have a lot of listeners, some who are already calling in who work in or run pro-life pregnancy centers around the country.

I would love to hear from you all folks at 1-800-684-3110. Even if you just volunteer there because you've been under attack, literally. We've seen the fire bombings.

We've seen the spray painting, the arson. We've seen just, again, the vandalism, the threats by pro-abortion radicals against pro-life pregnancy centers who forced no one to come in their doors. But if you do, of course, they are going to provide you with information on how you can continue your pregnancy and if you need adoption, if you need financial assistance, if you need help with food or how to take care of your child. They are there. They are non-profit. They provide this to women. We're about to be joined by Kelly Ross who runs Piedmont Women's Centers throughout South Carolina, in the upstate of South Carolina.

And I know well and have worked with Piedmont and seen one of their newest locations as well just a few years ago. But I want to play the sound from Elizabeth Warren. This is Senator Warren. This is, by the way, what we have been fighting in states like hers. So in New York, in California, and now she wants it done in Massachusetts. Take a listen to Elizabeth Warren. In Massachusetts right now, those crisis pregnancy centers that are there to fool people who are looking for pregnancy termination help outnumber true abortion clinics by three to one. We need to shut them down here in Massachusetts and we need to shut them down all around the country.

You should not be able to torture a pregnant person like that. I want to walk through this with Kelly Ross who is the CEO of Piedmont Women's Center. That's piedmontwomenscenter.org in South Carolina.

They've got multiple locations. Kelly, thanks for joining us today on Secular. I appreciate you being with us. When I saw this from Elizabeth Warren, I said I really hope I can get Kelly on the show because I want to start with this. First, Kelly, do you mislead women when they come through your doors, the fact that you are not an abortion clinic?

Absolutely not. In fact, on our website, we actually make it clear that we do not provide, recommend, or refer for an abortion. And our location there on Grove Road in Greenville is across the street from an abortion clinic. And if somebody comes in our office believing they're at the abortion clinic and they say that they're there for their abortion, we just clearly tell them we do not provide, recommend, or refer for abortion.

Here are the services that we provide and we would love to assist you today. Talk about that assistance, Kelly, because Elizabeth Warren called it torture. It's so absurd, the language, but we have seen, maybe not in South Carolina yet, but we've seen these attempts in these much more liberal states to try and shut down pro-life pregnancy centers. That is their goal. They see this as the number one, even with the overturning of Roe vs. Wade, you all are on the front lines. I always say that about the pro-life pregnancy centers.

You're the answer to the question of, well, what are you all going to do if Roe vs. Wade was overturned? And the infrastructure is already there, Kelly, because you guys have been doing this work. You had these organizations set up to help women if they are in a situation, in a pregnancy, which they're not sure how to move forward and how they can move forward. And you provide them the services they need. And they use the word torture to describe the work you're doing.

I encourage people to go look at Piedmont Women's Center's website, look at one of their new facilities and see if the word torture would make sense to anything you use. But the rhetoric, though, is so that your staff is under threat. It's to make it difficult to do your job and ultimately they want to shut you down, Kelly.

Yeah, it doesn't make any sense at all. We don't actually take any funding from the government, which I think is part of their problem. If we took money from the government, then they would be able to control us and tell us what to do and how to provide compassionate care. Compassionate care starts at Piedmont Women's Center and the host of 2,000-plus pregnancy centers across this nation.

And I can guarantee you, none of us torture women. What we do is we provide them what Planned Parenthood doesn't, which is somebody who is willing to listen to their current situation and circumstance. And that's what Planned Parenthood doesn't do.

That's what abortion clinics don't do. They actually, they talk about choice, but they do not provide choice. They provide a singular, unilateral option.

And the last time I heard a singular, unilateral option is not choice. At the Piedmont Women's Center and at the other pregnancy centers across this country, what we actually do is help people look at their current situation. We listen to where they are with their circumstances. And then we can provide them true options, whether that's creating a parenting plan, whether that's creating an adoption plan, whether there's some assistance that they need, whether it's materially, financially.

We have all of those resources. And at Piedmont Women's Center in Greenville, we've been doing this over 30 years. And I'll be honest with you, we've been doing it under some pretty difficult circumstances under Roe v. Wade.

I'm excited to see how the pregnancy care movement grows and expands now that the weight of Roe is going to be lifted. And I'm not ashamed of what we do. I'm proud of what we do and how we serve clients. And we had a client come in.

I can just share this story real quickly with you. She came in seeking an abortion. And we explained to her who we were and what we do, and she decided to stay. And we were able to provide her pregnancy tests and her ultrasound. And the nurse who was providing her ultrasound, she said, well, I want to abort this baby because I don't know who the father is. And the nurse who was providing the ultrasound, she said, well, that's not as important as knowing who the mother is.

You know, this is not torture. It's actually pointing towards truth. And I think that that is what our country desperately needs. This young woman left so encouraged. And on her survey, we survey every client as they leave our doors. And she gave us, you know, a 10 out of 10. And she put on there no abortion. Kelly, is that torture? I don't understand where Elizabeth Warren is coming from.

I really don't. No, it's any way to shut you all down because you are the alternative and I think in the post-Roe world even more so. And you've already been established, like you said, for 30 plus years doing this work right across the street from an abortion clinic.

She comes in your doors. Again, these are adults. They get to make the decision. You tell them right up front, we don't do this. This is what we do do. If you want to talk to us about it, we're willing to talk about it. You still don't have to do what we hope you do. But because you're an adult, you can walk out of here and walk across the street to the abortion clinic if you want to.

And no one is stopping them from doing that. At the same time, Jo, I want you to talk about this because you provide this care for women both pre-birth but also after birth. Absolutely, absolutely. We provide a host of parenting programs at Piedmont Women's Center. We have some psychology-based programs that we provide. We also provide material assistance. So every client who comes through and receives a positive pregnancy test at Piedmont Women's Center, whether they sign up for any additional classes or not, we provide them what we call a baby shower in a bag.

It's about $250 worth of items. And here's the thing, if they need more than that, we can provide more than that. If clients simply complete 10 of our parenting classes, which they can either do virtually or in-house, if they complete 10 of those, we give them a voucher for either a free car seat, a free pack and play, a month's supply of diapers. I don't know where they're going to get that kind of service anywhere else outside of the pregnancy help movement. And there are many of our sisters out there who are fighting the difficult fight. The level of protesting that is taking place and the violence that's taking place, it's not who we are. But what we want clients to know is that we hear you.

We see you. I was so impressed when I saw your new facility in Greenville. And I've been to facilities like yours across the country, but again, the attack on you. I wanted to just have someone like you be able to talk through to our audience to tell people exactly what happens, what is the process like, because when she uses words like torture, she's trying to encourage those attacks on centers like yours.

So Kelly, thank you so much for taking time to be with us on the broadcast today. Let me tell people it's piedmontwomenscenter.org so you can learn more about their work. If you're in South Carolina and in the upstate area of South Carolina, they need volunteers. They need help as well. I'm sure on their website you can donate, you can volunteer. So again, I encourage you folks, because the abortion industry always says, well, now what are you going to do?

There's going to be all these children. These centers, like Kelly's, have been in place for over 30 years. If you work in these centers, I want to hear from you today on the broadcast 1-800-684-3110.

That's 1-800-684-3110. I appreciate Kelly joining us right off the bat today, because this is not a joke from Elizabeth Warren, though some will say that you can't really do what she's saying. We've seen, and we'll talk about that when we come back, city councils and state governments try and shut down pro-life pregnancy centers. They do want them shut down. Right now there's an intimidation campaign against them, but there has also been legal actions we've had to fight out of California and New York. They are on the front lines, and we're proud at the ACLJ to provide legal support when necessary at no cost to those pregnancy centers when they need it so that they can continue to do their work when they are being intimidated by local governments and state governments, and you've got a U.S. senator saying that they torture women.

I mean, think about that. Not the abortion clinic, the pro-life pregnancy center. We'll take your calls when we come back on Sekulow 1-800-684-3110. Support the work of the ACLJ, our matching challenge. Double the impact, your donation to ACLJ.org.

All right, welcome back to Sekulow. We are taking your calls, too, as Elizabeth Warren, Senator Warren calling pro-life pregnancy centers that they need to be shut down. There's too many of them, and that they torture women. We just heard from Kelly Ross, who runs the Piedmont Women's Centers in South Carolina, and of course there's 2,000-plus of these centers around the country. I want to hear and ask for people to call in who work and volunteer in these centers, and Leah does as well in Georgia online, too. Hey, Leah, welcome to Sekulow.

You're on the air. Thank you for taking my call. I've been volunteering in our local Crosses Pregnancy Center, and it has been such a blessing to work with these women. Most of them just want a listening ear. We supply emotional, physical, and spiritual support. And I've never been involved with such a wonderful group of servants that have a heart for these babies and these women.

Well, not Leah, and I appreciate you volunteering your time to do that work, and it's so true. If you've ever had a chance to be in one of these centers and to visit, to see that they're actually doing the ultrasounds there, and they're actually providing that for women there, I mean, again, to hear those words from Elizabeth Warren, that's why even though it is one U.S. senator who's extremist, I want to take that opportunity, because this is not so outside the norm than in the pro-abortion movement inside Washington and throughout the country. They do want to shut these centers down, and we've had to fight to keep them open.

I would say it is the norm, Jordan. They want to shut them down. They want to make sure that there is no alternative other than abortion. And look, let me just echo something that both Kelly and Leah talked about, and that's the fact that volunteers and community support, they really form the backbone of these crisis pregnancy centers. You know, Jordan, our family's done partnership work with centers as well. We've also partnered with an adoption agency. We actually have a beautiful baby girl in our care right now, Jordan.

And I say all that to say this. There are a number of heroes anytime you have a child that comes into a crisis pregnancy center. You have the birth mother, who Kelly talked about, who has made the decision to carry that child to term and might need support. You've got the pregnancy center. You've got the volunteers like Leah that come alongside that mother. Then you've got the adoption agencies that may need to place that child if the birth mother decides to make that placement.

And then, of course, the adoptive family. So, Jordan, what you've got is what the left says they believe in, which is a community that has decided to come together to help those in need. Why would someone like Senator Warren want to shut that down?

Jordan, there's only one answer to this. It's that they're not pro-choice. They are pro-abortion, on-demand, and in any and every circumstance.

That's the only way that it is. And look, how do you combat it? You have to combat it federally, but then I think more importantly in a post-war world, you have to do what we're doing at the ACLJ. You have to come alongside these pregnancy centers in each and every community and each and every state and make sure they have a defense when they're attacked from this high-profile level. Yeah, I mean, a Rumble comment came and said, Watching the left fight for Planned Parenthood gives us insight into how much money they take in from Planned Parenthood.

That's true, too. They hand out a lot of money to politicians to make those kind of statements. Go out there and say those pro-life pregnancy centers are torturing women.

It's just absurd, and that's why I wanted to have one of the directors. So you weren't just hearing it from me as the attorneys that represent them, but as from the people actually running the centers on a day-to-day basis, what they do. And I think you heard in that last segment exactly how it works if you come in there as a woman seeking help. And they make it very clear right off the bat, they're not trying to hide what they are, that they are not abortion clinics, they're not going to refer you to an abortion. But there are adults that are going there who can decide on their own what they want to do next if they want to take the information the pro-life pregnancy centers have provided them or not. It's all the answer to that question, which is, what are you going to do if you shut down all these abortion clinics? And see, what they don't like, and what you were just talking about, is the answer we already have. We don't have to create the response to what happens if abortion is banned in these states and not available here. We do have all of those.

You went through it. All of the different lines of people, it already exists. Jordan, you're so correct. I mean, one of the things that I just cringe whenever I hear it is that we're going to have this huge amount of unwanted children.

Jordan, let me just set the record straight on this. There is no such thing as an unwanted child in the United States of America. The adoption agency that we partner with has a long, long waiting list, waiting for babies to be placed for adoption. They are willing to take a child with all sorts of complications from all sorts of different backgrounds. There is a backlog of families waiting to make those adoption. So the statement, Jordan, that there is such a thing as an unwanted child in the United States of America, Jordan, it's nothing short of a lie. It's a lie.

It is not true. And if a birth mother decides she is going to bring her child to term and deliver it, that's a huge sacrifice in and of itself, right, Jordan? But if she is willing to do that, there are communities like the one that Kelly was talking about, like the one that Kelly's been leading for a number of years in a pre-Dobbs world, in a row world.

Jordan, now that there is an opportunity in a post-row world for these mothers to maybe in even increasing numbers bring those children to term, I can guarantee you there are families ready to provide those children a loving and a forever home. And that's the end that we're shooting for, Jordan. Thad, I want to turn to something that's going on in Washington, D.C. It's Joe Manchin who came out and said, you know what, I'm not doing any more tax increases, these economic packages and climate packages.

I'm out. He has changed his mind on that. Yeah, I mean, we've talked about this so many times with Senator Manchin. Senator Manchin sometimes does the right thing until he does the wrong thing, Jordan. And you just, you know, you go by the last statement that he gives to the press and it's almost always just a negotiating posture. Look, what he said last night is that he thought the inflation numbers that are out of control, you know, over nine percent, of course, they mean that you should not increase taxes on the American people.

You should not increase spending from Washington, D.C. That's, of course, absolutely correct. I mean, it's a no brainer, but you're right, Jordan. Today he is sort of backing down from that and said, well, you know, it might depend what next month's numbers look like as far as inflation goes. I mean, Jordan, think about this.

The American people aren't stupid. Let's say next month's inflation number isn't quite as historically terrible as the last month was. What will that mean as far as annual inflation goes? Jordan, it'll still mean the worst inflation in decades and decades.

So this is just this is just posturing from Joe Manchin. And the answer next month needs to be the same one that it was last night. It would be the worst time to raise taxes on the American people and to get even more spending out of Washington, D.C. One real quick deadline, an important date on this, Jordan. The end of September is when they would have to move a bill in order to not lose their current reconciliation instructions. I don't think they'll be able to pass a new budget next year.

So if it pushes past September, that's probably the deadline you're looking at. But again, let me just close where I started. Senator Joe Manchin, he means what he says until he says something different, Jordan. Yeah, I mean, that's so true. OK, folks, this is a critical time at the ACLJ to support our work financially.

This is a matching challenge month. And I know that you've heard me say that before. If you're a regular listener to the broadcast, you watch the broadcast. But let me just tell people why who are thinking about making a financial contribution to the ACLJ or to the work that we do, where that goes. Well, you know, obviously to do this broadcast every day to get this out costs resources. But of course, most of our resources go to fighting the battles.

Of course, using our broadcast is important to that. But it's fighting the battles in courts. It's fighting the battles in Congress. It's fighting the battles in international courts. So all of our international work that we do all over the world for religious liberty, for freedom of speech, protecting your constitutional rights.

And again, at a time when we believe the ACLJ is needed now more than ever. So in a matching challenge month, we have a group of donors that is ready to match every donation that comes through. You double the impact your donation. Donate online today at ACLJ.org.

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. 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, welcome to the broadcast. And you know, this whole month, of course, for us at the ACLJ is a matching challenge month. And we are getting near the very end of this month. We are close to where our goal is. We're about, I think it was 3% behind last year.

And we want to kind of hit that goal again. So we're encouraging you to support the work of the ACLJ at ACLJ.org. Today's broadcast, we are going to take a look at kind of the depth and scope of the American Center for Law and Justice. We're going to focus on some of our work on the international front, which includes, by the way, the United Nations, our office in Jerusalem, of course. And you know, last year we started this initiative called ACLJ Now More Than Ever.

And Logan, that was your kind of brainchild on that. Tell us a little bit about what that was and we'll talk about the additions we made. Yeah, a lot of things happened in 2020, as we all can remember. And we decided that the ACLJ, as things were heating up beginning of 2021, our organization, as we kind of felt, you know, finding that sort of determining phrase that would take us through the next year, and now it's been a year and a half, was that the ACLJ was needed more than ever. And that has certainly been the case, as we have seen an interesting time in America, an interesting time in the world. And that even leads us up to recently with the overturning of Roe vs. Wade, how the ACLJ's fight is needed more than ever. And that was, you know, folks, for everybody to remember, this was a 40-year fight, litigation-wise.

It's not really over. No, I mean, now we've got to deal with the states, but to remove the obstacle of a constitutional right to take the life of an unborn child, which is contrary to moral values, to spiritual values, to Christian principles, Judeo-Christian principles, getting that removed as this, quote, constitutional right was a big step. Now, of course, as we've been talking about, we've got to fight this on a state-by-state level.

And don't kid yourself for a minute, these radical groups don't want life protected. But we also made some big additions in 2021. We brought on the former director of national intelligence, Rick Grenell, as a senior advisor to the ACLJ on national security and intelligence. We brought on the former secretary of state of the United States of America, Mike Pompeo, who is also the director of the CIA.

So we brought on two members of the former administration's cabinet as part of the ACLJ. And this was to broaden the scope and effectiveness of our work, but also to be able to give you insight into what's happening. We've expanded our office work in Jerusalem with now someone dedicated in our office in Jerusalem now.

Yeah, we have dedicated offices in Israel. We have reports of them every week. You obviously have Rick and Mike, which have been, like you said, during times of uncertainty.

It's interesting to hear perspective from someone who recently lived it, was in it. Of course, that was all 2021. We're halfway through 2022 right now in the month of July, and we're still expanding.

Things are growing. But obviously, we do know there's financial stresses. There's economic downturns that are happening right now. There's inflation that is happening, gas prices. All of those things have compounded, but doesn't mean the work here at the ACLJ stops. It doesn't even mean it goes on pause. It keeps going.

It did through 2020. Through 2021 will continue in the foreseeable future to continue to fight for your rights and to give you guys the best amount of information on what's actually happening. I think that's something you hear a lot of people bloviate and say, you know, they tell you about how horrible things are, but they give you no hope and they give you no pathway to any sort of change. That's what we do differently here than a lot of places. You may hear our radio show and kind of combine us with all the other conservative talk shows you hear the differences. Those guys are giving your opinion.

Nothing wrong with it. They're giving your opinion. We're giving your opinion and then we're going to do the work. That's right. I mean, that's always been our hallmark is not just talking about it.

And then there's nothing wrong with talking about it. That's important to educate people, but also doing something about it, offering hope in trying and difficult times. So we want to encourage you as we get ready to put the last week here of our matching challenge and gear to go to ACLJ.org. That's ACLJ.org. Any amount you donate, we're going to get a matching gift for.

That's right. Visit ACLJ.org not only to donate, but to see the incredible content we're doing. But every donation made is effectively doubled. So if you give $10 or someone on the other end saying we're going to match that and make it 20 and so on and so on. Again, that is at ACLJ.org. Go there for more information and to donate today.

Welcome back to the broadcast, everyone. We've been talking about and mentioned this in the last segment, this threat from China, which we broke early on this and we've been working on aggressively. And joining us now is former Secretary of State for the United States of America, Mike Pompeo, who is our Senior Counsel for Global Affairs. Mike, we have talked about the threat of China infiltrating universities through funding and grants. But this situation in North Dakota is very unique because here you have a sensitive military base and the Chinese Communist Party connected businesses. And these are controlled by the Chinese Communist Party, purchasing or attempting to purchase farmland almost adjacent to this Air Force base. And you ask yourself, why would the Chinese Communist Party want to buy farmland in North Dakota? First of all, how serious is this threat from China?

And then we'll talk about what their actions are here. How serious is the Chinese threat? Xi Jinping, the leader of the Chinese Communist Party, has made very clear his intention. He wants to undermine the Western way of life, the things that we value here.

Our human rights here in the United States, our ability to practice our faith in the United States, our ability to grow businesses in the United States. He's made clear he wants to change that. He wants to be the global hegemon. He wants our kids and grandkids to live in a world that looks more like what you see happening today in China with lockdowns and the surveillance state.

To look more like that than the America that we know and love. This is a serious threat. It is one of the greatest threats to the United States in all of our history now, 250 plus years. And this effort to now buy properties in and around American military installations is one thread in that threat profile. Let's talk about that one for a moment, because when we got word of this, and the American Center for Law and Justice is working on it, but our ACLJ action, our 501c4 is also working on this. I think it'd be important, Mr. Secretary, to explain to our audience why the Chinese government, you know, companies, because these are owned by the Chinese Communist Party, why would they acquire property like this?

What is the reason? Yeah, you make two good points to start. One is there's no such thing as a private company in China. I think that's important for everybody in North Dakota and Kansas and California, everybody to understand.

There's no such thing when they show up with a private company name. It's truly just their military, the People's Liberation Army or their Communist Party itself with a facade, with a fake front. Second, why are they doing this? It's not to grow crops. It's about to make lives better for the people of North Dakota.

It's not a full employment act for that great state. It is so they can surveil that space. It is so they can come to understand who's moving, what's going where, who the suppliers are, and to be in and around an important strategic military base is something of great value to the Chinese Communist Party's leadership.

I often think, Jay, the reverse of this. Imagine an American company trying to buy a property adjacent to a Chinese military base in western part of China. Do you think there's any chance that they would let that happen?

No. Because we would learn from that and we would benefit from that and it would harm their nation if we had our government owning an installation next to their military base. That's what we're permitting to happen.

We ought to do all we can to push back against this, not only in North Dakota, but everywhere, Jay. Mike, you served as the director of the CIA as well as being Secretary of State. And when we talk about the Chinese Communist Party surveillance capabilities, people sometimes underestimate how sophisticated their surveillance can be.

Unrivaled, Jay. One of the scariest things that I saw as CIA director was the scope and scale of the Chinese Communist Party surveillance state. And not just inside their own country.

It is like nothing you've seen inside the country. To move in Beijing is to be captured. Your face, your whereabouts, your movements are captured every day inside the country, but their efforts around the world are unequaled as well. They own Tencent, Alibaba. These are data companies. We've talked about TikTok a couple of times, Jay, where they're collecting American information. They've done this. You talked about universities and research institutions where they're collecting data on Americans. And they're putting it in their big databases, applying artificial intelligence, and developing the capacity to perform surveillance like no nation has ever been able to do in the history of man's time on this earth.

It is staggering, Jay. So one of the other issues that's happening is Speaker Pelosi is doing a scheduled trip to Taiwan. The Chinese Communist Party have said there'd be, quote, severe negative impact on the political foundation of China-U.S. relations. How should we react to this basically threat from – I don't agree with Nancy Pelosi on anything, really, or very little. But the idea that the Speaker of the House of the United States is traveling to Taiwan and the Chinese issuing a threat.

What is the messaging there? Well, look, they're trying to stop us from doing what is right, which is to acknowledge that Taiwan is not part of China. The history is very clear. It never was, never has been, and if America performs its mission right, never will be part of China. Xi Jinping's intent on bringing it inside and the fact that Speaker Pelosi is planning to go there, I was there earlier this year.

I'm likely to head back before too long. We should be able to freely travel where Americans want to travel. We ought to recognize Taiwan as the independent sovereign nation that it is, and I think Speaker Pelosi's trip should continue. And we should make clear to the Chinese that if they do something that is inconsistent with Taiwan being an independent nation, there will be real costs imposed on them. We have a Taiwanese defense pact. It doesn't necessarily require military action, but if China were to make a move on Taiwan militarily, what should be the world response? Because we've seen the response in Ukraine, which has been chaotic to say the least. What happens if the Chinese, because there was a lot of thought that the Chinese government was going to move on Taiwan while the Ukraine-Russia conflict was going on. It still could happen. How do we respond to that if they were to make a military move? Right. No, Jay, that risk is still very real.

Two thoughts. One is the most important thing one can do as the leader of the free world is establish deterrence. It's what President Biden has lost. He lost it when we left Afghanistan.

He reduced America's power and influence in the world. And we saw what's happening to the Ukrainian people as a result of that. So with respect to Taiwan, we should be using this time, this day, this moment to do what we've agreed to do, to give them the tools to defend themselves. Were Xi to take an actual military attack on Taiwan?

There are many tools, some of which I just don't want to get into, but there are many tools that the West, not just the United States, but Japan, South Korea, Australia, all of the people that care about the freedom loving people of the Pacific. There are lots of things that we could do in response to that. And I hope we've communicated that very clearly to Xi that should he undertake such an effort, there will be real costs for China and the Chinese Communist Party to pay. I want to move to the energy situation. Obviously, we're having very high oil and gas prices still.

Come down a little bit, but it's still very, very high. The President went after the oil and gas companies in the United States saying you need to be producing more. At the same time, he was telling them in three to five years, you're going to be out of business because we're going to do it with fossil fuels. And then he was threatening, really threatening these oil and gas companies.

He wanted to know their income, their marketing, all of this, profits. What is the White House trying to accomplish here? Not long ago, but under your administration, we're talking about 19 months ago, we were energy independent. Now, we're not only dependent, the President went over begging Saudi Arabia for more oil and it doesn't look like that happened. Yes, it looks like that part of his effort failed.

That's too bad. I would love OPEC to produce more energy as well, Saudi and all the others. Most importantly, I wish we'd produced more here.

This is something you've been very engaged in, Jay, you and your team at the ACLJ, pushing back on the regulatory state inside the United States. The difference between now and what seems like forever, but is only 19 months ago, was that we applauded private companies that were out investing, taking risks, delivering good affordable products to the American people. We encouraged that.

We didn't penalize them. And we didn't have this unrealistic dream, this dream that you could transition off of fossil fuels with no backup plan and impose massive costs on the American people and American families. This was foolish. This became a bit of a religion for them.

It's kind of an article of faith that you could power America with sunshine and windmills. Sadly, they began to punish the very firms that could produce the affordable energy so parents could drive their kids to soccer games and elderly couples on fixed incomes that are going to have to heat their homes this winter could afford to do so. This was an enormous political mistake. It was a decision made by the Biden administration and now the American people are paying the price for that.

Last question. A not so noticed Supreme Court case drastically limited the ability of the administrative state to achieve through their climate agenda through rulemaking, which people ignore, but it's very important. This rulemaking creates a whole new body of law. Do you see the President talking about coming out with an emergency executive order on climate change? Is this another way to get around the regulatory safeguards that were put in place by the Supreme Court two weeks ago? I suspect it is. I suspect it's one part an attempt to circumvent what the Supreme Court did and second part political panic.

So somewhere in between those two. Unfortunately, no matter what it is he does, I am confident that it is very likely to continue to drive energy prices higher. When you deny the most affordable energy to the American people, this is bad for the American economy. We may well see a recession as a result of this.

It would really be tragic and it is. I have to just keep in mind this is a choice. This wasn't Putin's energy price like this was President Biden and the progressive last effort to undermine the very affordable energy that Americans have come to rely on. And we ought to head back. It's simple to go back to the policies we had and it would certainly save a lot of families an awful lot of money. No question about it. Mike Pompeo, former Secretary of State and our Senior Counsel of Global Affairs. Thanks as always for being with us. Folks, elections have consequences because there's policies.

Policies have consequences because it impacts you and me and everybody else. We've got a lot more coming up. Support the work of the ACLJ. Logan's going to let you know how to do that. One more segment ahead.

Yeah, one segment. If you want your voice heard on the air, give us a call at 1-800-684-3110. You said you can support the work of the ACLJ very easily.

Just go to ACLJ.org. Right now you'll see there's a big banner. This is Matching Challenge. Click donate today.

Be right back. Well, I want to go from political stunts to reality. And the reality is what the American Center for Law and Justice is doing on the life issue.

Joining us on the phone is Senior Counsel for the ACLJ, Frank Manion, who's been fighting the life fight. I mean, my goodness, Frank, we've been fighting side by side for 35, 40 years. I know you were even involved before then. But look, we saw the stunt that AOC did with this faking their handcuffs.

I made the comment we represented people that were really handcuffed. But there's a much more sinister move going on right now. Since the Dobbs decision has come out, it's very clear. Senator Warren has said it.

Others have said it. They want to shut down these pro-life crisis pregnancy centers. What are we doing about it right now? Because we've got a whole team of lawyers working on this. That's right, Jay.

We've got a strategy. Really, it's three parts. There may be more parts as we develop this thing. But first, particularly in New York, where an act was passed immediately after Dobbs, authorizing an investigation by the State Health Department and other agencies to, quote unquote, investigate, in effect, crisis pregnancy centers and only crisis pregnancy centers. And we were able to read between the lines of this thing. This is investigate in order to terminate.

That's what this is all about. The Attorney General and other political officials of New York have basically said that. They're barely holding back now. So we've been retained by two different crisis pregnancy centers in New York already. We're in talks with three others. We had a meeting this morning with one. Ed White and I are meeting with two others in New York next week. We've also had meetings with crisis pregnancy centers in Michigan. So first of all, we're going to defend them against these witch hunts.

What does that mean? Not only will we advise them, but when they get subpoenas, which they will, we will, in appropriate circumstances, move to quash those. I suspect we have a lot of First Amendment free speech arguments there. Second, we're going to work with the police.

Let's hold on to that. Before we get to the second one, I want to ask a question because you raised clearly this crisis pregnancy centers are the target. Andy, when Frank talks about a motion to quash, let's explain this to our audience. That is to stop the enforcement of an overbroad subpoena.

That's correct. The motion to quash essentially says that this subpoena should not be enforced, that the court should suppress it, and that the person directed to appear or directed to produce documents should not be required to comply with the terms of the subpoena. And the term that is normally used is a motion to quash or a motion to dismiss.

Usually in Georgia, for instance, we call it a motion to quash and in many other jurisdictions, that's what it's called. All right, Frank, so that's kind of phase one, phase two here. Go ahead. Phase two, we've got to work closely with local police and prosecutors. Now, there's some problems there, obviously. First of all, you know, they have a lot of other things to do. In some cases, we're talking about real terrorism. I mean, the one in western New York that we're talking to today, his clinic was bombed with two Molotov cocktails, did extensive fire damage, all sorts of graffiti from Jane's Revenge and others threatening physical harm to the people that run this clinic and their family members.

Others have simply been vandalized, not quite to that extent. Others have received threats of violence and death directed to themselves and their family members. We're willing to do whatever these prosecutors and local police need us to do to help them. And we're making that known to them, where we've been contacted by crisis predators. Now, they have their own issues, obviously, they have budgetary constraints, they have other problems that they're dealing with. And let's face it, in many of these places, they have political ideology. You know, prosecutorial discretion is occasionally, shall we say, influenced by political and ideological considerations. Let's not get ourselves about that.

But what I'm really excited about, Jay, is the third prong, which is something that I think is fairly novel. You and I remember when the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act was passed back in the early 90s. In response to those Operation Rescue protests that you and I were involved in defending, it had a huge chilling effect on those things. And those were nonviolent protests.

But the prospect of having to be sued, you know, facing a lawsuit with compensatory and punitive damages and injunctive relief and attorneys fees really discouraged an awful lot of otherwise, you know, people who are otherwise inclined to go out and protest. Now, but now we're talking about actual violence, and it applies just as much if not more so to acts of violence. And what I don't think the other side side realized then they certainly don't realize it now is that the face act that it's called would also cover crisis pregnancy centers, and threats of an actual violence and vandalism directed against them. So we think that and it's an easier if we don't have to wait for the police or the US Attorney or the local Attorney General to do it.

An individual who is harmed by somebody in these circumstances can file a, a civil face action and we're encouraging them to do that. Obviously, we need to identify defendants. We're close to doing that in some of these places in New York. Not sure we have enough yet, but we're very close.

And our investigation is continuing. And I just think it would be really exciting. Exactly. And we're turning the table here you want you want face in your face.

You go. And all we need to do is file one or two or a handful of these things. And I think we'll see a similar backing off by the James revenge crowd, and others so inclined. If we file these things, and particularly if we're successful on this. That's exactly right. Frankly, we appreciate your comments. Appreciate your insight. Thanks for being with us, folks.

We are looking at this issue, kind of in a holistic way to defend the right to speak out for life, especially in light of the overturn of Roe vs Wade. We've got calls coming in 800-684-3110. Let's say Yeah, let's go to Brenda in California on line one. Brenda, you're on the air. Hi, Brenda. Hi.

Thank you for taking my call. I think we should use a these people that fake this handcuffs. We should use them as an example.

And have justice on them to say no, this is this is a wrong behavior. $50 What do you think, Jay? Well, I mean, that's the problem.

The fine is $50. I mean, it's it's it's which may be, you know, they're they're protesting. You don't want to discourage just like the concept of protesting. It's just the charade. Yeah, it's what happened here was not their right to go protest that they don't like the decision in the Supreme Court. That's a free country.

You can do that. The charade is faking you're being handcuffed for media purposes, except the media was all over it and saw that they were not being handcuffed. That's the real charade of this. None of this happens without you. And I will tell you, like, we're not like a lot of organizations in that we don't have, you know, we don't get we get some and we're appreciative of everything. We're not we don't get regularly $10 million grants and million dollar grants.

That's very rare for us. I mean, you could you could look at those over the course of our 20 years. I mean, our building in Washington was a large donation from a foundation. We'll never forget that.

That's been 20 years already. But it's because of people like you. Lots of people like you that make a difference. That was what we decided to do 35 or 40 years ago when we started.

That it was going to be more of a we now call grassroots model, but it was really going to be supported by everyday citizens, the people that wanted to protect religious freedom, religious liberty and protect our freedom and liberty as American citizens. And we have been blessed beyond anything we could imagine. We have facilities that we can't even when I'm wearing these facilities, I still can't believe we're in these facilities, but that doesn't happen without you. But I just wanted to stop and say thank you from all of us. But there's a lot of people working behind the scenes, as you know, in that we don't have a camera back there. We should really get one.

And around this entire office and our offices around the globe. Thank you. Without your support, it doesn't happen. And as we said, we're in a matching challenge campaign. Jordan's going to let you know how to do it.

It makes a big difference on how we can proceed ahead. Yeah, it's very easy to do. You go to ACLJ.org.

That's ACLJ.org. Right on the home page there. You can do it on your phone. You can do it on your tablet. You can do it on your computer.

Very quick, though. I mean, by the time we come back from this break, you could have easily made the donation. And you'll see matching challenge or donate. Either one of those take you to the right page. Put in your info. Choose the amount you want to donate. You can also choose if you want to make it a recurring monthly donation. That will still be part of the match.

People ask that all the time. And that will be part of the match. So you go to ACLJ.org. This is a great time to support our work. As you said, we're grassroots. A $25 donation is a big deal for the ACLJ.