Biden DEMANDS Dem Mayor Downplay Border Crisis

Today on Sekulow, President Biden demands the Democrat mayor play down the border crisis happening in his own city, trying to pay him off with federal funds. We'll talk about that more today on Sekulow. Keeping you informed and engaged, now more than ever, this is Sekulow. Look, the city of El Paso has been absolutely overrun with migrant arrivals in recent weeks, and as you just mentioned, the Post is reporting the White House has privately pressured El Paso's Democrat mayor to not declare an emergency there. We want to hear from you.

Share and post your comments. Or call 1-800-684-3110. The Democrat mayor of El Paso, Oscar Leaser, gave his own statement to the New York Post, writing in part, quote, I don't bow to pressure from any side. I make decisions based on current circumstances and in the best interest of the citizens of El Paso. And now your host, Jordan Sekulow.

Welcome to Sekulow. We're taking your phone calls to 1-800-684-3110 because you imagine that how many other cities who are dealing with the migrant crisis like El Paso, these border cities, have got the same message from the White House, which is don't declare a state of emergency. Even though that's what the Democrat mayor wanted to do initially and was being pushed by city council members to do so. But we'll send you FEMA funds. But just to give you an example of how much money it's costing these cities to deal with the illegal immigration and the crisis at the border. For just El Paso, just for their emergency funds that they're supposed to get reimbursed from the federal government, they have only gotten 2 million out of the $8 million they've already spent.

So these cities are relying a lot on Biden administration promises that ultimately you will get these checks written so that you'll be able to replenish your city's funds. Now, also at the same time, El Paso, this is a Democrat mayor, again, who there's been all this criticism about the buses, you know, going to New York, going to Chicago, going to all these cities. And Eric Adams, the mayor of New York City, came out attacking the city of El Paso, saying, we didn't ask El Paso to do this. Now, this is the guy who ran, we're the city for everybody, we're the place to come for everybody, we're the sanctuary, this is the Statue of Liberty city. Okay, well, if you really are, then you should be able to take 17,000 to 25,000 immigrants into your community pretty easily into a city that size.

But it's causing trouble there. And what the mayor said in El Paso, dad, was he said, listen, we're not forcing anybody to go there. When we have these people, we've done, I think they've done 196 buses for a total of 9,300 people, and they've asked. So 7,300 wanted to go to New York, so they let them go to New York, and they paid their way to New York. About 2,000 went to Chicago because that's where they wanted to go.

So it's not surprising that this is where they have contacts. So the White House has asked, specifically El Paso, to not declare a state of emergency. And as Jordan said, they will give them money to offset this, but they don't want that declaration of an emergency. Now, as Jordan said, the Democratic mayor of El Paso knows they've got an emergency situation there. And the transfer of people out of El Paso to New York is based on, as you said, their decision, the decision of the people that came into the United States illegally.

That's where they wanted to go, maybe family ties, whatever it might be. But here's what's the irony of all of this, and I think the danger of all of this is this is now not a Republican versus Democrat issue. This is cities being overrun and not being able to handle the volume of people involved in this.

That is the real problem here. So when you have that happening, you've got to say to yourself, what can the city do? And that's what they decided to do, but the President said, hey, don't declare a state of emergency. And why do you think he decided not to declare a state of emergency?

Could it be because, boy, that's not going to look very good? Yeah, so they're using FEMA funds. There's some work around here that they're being able to utilize, where they're utilizing FEMA, so the Federal Emergency Management funds to these cities, but they're able to do it by saying cities don't declare states emergency. We don't want to have to declare a state of emergency. Could you imagine if Joe Biden today, a few weeks after the election, less than three weeks now, people are already voting in many states.

So I mean, really, election day begins now because of early voting. And if they had to declare, if they declared a state of emergency on the southern border, it would kill Democrat chances of even holding the Senate. So they're playing games with your taxpayer dollars, but even going after Democrats, that's how far they will go to try and play this game that there is not actually an emergency, there's not actually a crisis at our southern border. Give us a call, 1-800-684-3110.

Welcome back to Sekulow, and we're taking phone calls too on this 1-800-684-3110. Are you in these communities, these towns, these cities, are you feeling the impact of the illegal immigration? One is, of course, the numbers of people, so the resources it takes from communities which just don't have the size, don't have the numbers, don't have the people to do it. The second is, we have a federal government that doesn't want to acknowledge the problem. So they're telling cities and states, don't declare a state of emergency, but we'll send you emergency funds. And to me, it's just, again, the humanitarian disaster here is gigantic. The fact that yesterday, remember, we reported that DOD, they got the call to say, hey, if you want to go for 60 days, volunteer.

This is also a workaround. It's gone out to every federal agency now. So you could be a Department of Justice attorney, it takes 60 days to go clean up trash at the border. To me, and you're not getting paid more, because that would be a different declaration, like if they needed to sit special people down. But of course, this is, again, they don't want to have to actually acknowledge how bad it is. So they're trying to use all these workarounds that won't make them have to declare emergencies and use the emergency title.

Because that's what we've all been saying it is. It's a crisis, it's an emergency, it should be declared that way. It's really the biggest threat we face directly as a country right now.

We've come out of COVID, so now you'd think this, with the drugs that are coming across, with the human trafficking coming across, this is the crime. This is the problem plaguing our country, one of the major problems under the economy. And it has a direct effect on the economy. I mean, these cities and towns are saying, we can't afford this.

Look, here's what it is. The cities received $2 million from the federal government. Okay, so that's what they've got. The reality is they've already spent over $8 million, and you know that's underreporting, because these things run months in arrears. So you've got an economic crisis that's facing the city, and then you've got a mayor who wants to declare an emergency.

The city council, at least three members of the city council, said declare the national emergency, that will help get additional funds in. But the reality is, if you look at what's happened, this becomes a political statement. But then as you said, and listen to this from Fox News, I think this statement sums it up.

Take a listen. Our Homeland Security sources now are accusing the White House of, quote, circumventing an emergency declaration at the southern border by borrowing labor from across the federal government, instead of asking Congress for additional funds to stem the border crisis. So the mayor is getting these additional funds. She said, I don't bow to pressure from any side and make decisions based on current circumstances and in the best interest of the citizens of El Paso. Wouldn't the best interest of the citizens of El Paso right now be get funds there, get money there so they can address this?

Yeah, I mean, that's the whole issue. And so, again, we take your calls, 1-800-684-3110. That's 1-800-684-3110. Let's go to Barbara in Utah, online one. Hey, Barbara. Hi, thank you for taking my call.

I just have a comment to make, and this is the way I see the world. If they're going to spend all this money and they're not really doing anything, they ought to come down to the border, live there for a week with the migrants, and then make decisions. Here's the thing, Barbara, and I want to ask you a question, too, on politics, and we're going to start doing this more and more when people call in from states that are in the news. One, they won't go. The vice President, the President, they're certainly not going to go these next few weeks. It's bad imagery. Bad imagery looks like they've allowed a problem to go from one that was being handled, wasn't perfect, but was being handled by the Trump administration, there were solutions being done, to just totally out of control. So they're not going to show that imagery, but Barbara, if you're still with us, I wanted to ask you about the election because a lot of news on the Senate race in Utah. Our good friend Mike Lee said that there was a poll came out that showed Evan McMullin was running as an independent, but he's really a Democrat, is very close.

What are you picking up from your friends and family about that? McMullin is basically a chameleon. He changes his statements to suit whatever he thinks the people want to hear, and he is nothing but a liar. So you think end of the day, ultimately, I mean, I think Mike Lee will ultimately... It's hard to believe that's even a close race.

Yeah. Well, sometimes you want to sound the alarm because people are starting to vote to make sure if he needs some resources, he needs to start doing some work. And Mitt Romney's been a real problem there because he is the only U.S.

Senator, Republican Senator, that hasn't endorsed Mike Lee. And his excuse is, I'm friends with both of them, but the balance of power, whether Mitt Romney is on a committee, whether he's on unbelievable... It kind of shows I think he's... It's a heck of a risk. Seems like he's kind of done.

I think so. I mean, look, we've known him a long time and... But he's taking this turn that's made him very isolated. Yeah, but this is bad politics. I mean... It doesn't make sense if you're a Republican Senator, which he is. You got a House and Senate that are... I mean, I think the House clearly looks like it's going to be the Republicans. The Senate, folks, anybody that's saying, I've seen these headlines, hey, it's going to be... The momentum is now here. The Republicans have the momentum.

Two weeks ago it was Democrats have the momentum. It's going to come down to three or four states. And it probably comes down to Pennsylvania and Georgia. And right now in Pennsylvania and Georgia, it's too close to call on the Senate side, don't you think?

Yes. Yeah, but you can't start predicting... First of all, things can happen. People are already voting.

There's always a group. Polling is tough for now. Trend polling is one thing. Showing rates tight.

Showing that people would blow out. But when you start getting to tell you the three, four points, that's anybody. Anybody can win at that point.

Unless you're at like nine, 10, I think it really... I'd say these days, unless you're in that double digit kind of poll where you can really see a trend, the pollsters are really figuring it out, every race could go either way. So you can't take any of these for granted. Turnout is key. And how does this... Like the story we're talking about with El Paso. Well, because immigration is now... The border insecurity is affecting every state. How do you think that's going to play out in the election when you see the thing like, don't declare a state of emergency? And why is that the reason?

It's a lousy optic. Yeah. Well, yes, they don't want to declare a state of emergency, but now they're having the Democrats because you got... This mayor got pulled out on this because of Eric Adams, the mayor of New York. So the mayor in El Paso had to respond to the two Democrat mayors are going after each other. And the Biden administration sitting in the middle and really not doing anything, handing out some resources.

But as I said, of the 8 million already spent by El Paso over the funds they have available, they've only been reimbursed $2 million. Now that's small numbers for the federal government, but it just shows you they got sold this game of, we'll use the federal emergency funds, but don't declare a state of emergency. And by the way, I don't like that these mayors are getting pushed around, but they also are trying to get the funding. So what this mayor said is, I had to make the decision that was best for the city. When the Biden administration came in and said, don't do this, we'll give you this many resources. He's saying, I chose the resources. But you've got the Department of Justice, DOD, all these agencies, DHS, others saying, get your volunteers down here.

We're going to pay you everything. Listen to what Congressman Mike Waltz has said. He's been on this broadcast before. Take a listen. I will be certainly looking into what these DOD officials that are apparently going to our border on a volunteer basis aren't focused on back in the Pentagon. The opportunity cost of this action rather than just coming to Congress and dealing with an above board way is really concerning to me. This is the problem. I mean, and who doesn't think that this is not a national emergency? Is there anybody on any political party that doesn't think this is a national emergency? We don't have control of the border and the migration crisis is real. And it's going to get worse on the months ahead.

Here's what makes me nervous. By the way, I want to say this because I have followed, Ruble just started doing push notifications. So if you subscribe to the ACLJ Ruble page, make sure your notifications are now turned on.

So go in there. You're already a subscriber. If you're not, subscribe if that's how you watch the broadcast and interact.

And make sure you've turned on notifications so you'll get the push notification when we're live on Sekulow. But I've seen a lot of people in the chat still say, I think they're going to cheat. I think they're going to, you know, and I think this is the problem. If you go in with that mindset, you can't win if you don't vote. So you've got to stop that messaging. The messaging should be let's overwhelm the system. Let's have so many Republicans and conservatives and independents show up to vote Republican that there's no way to cheat.

That it was that big of a victory. And because when you start telling people it's a waste of time, I will tell you, where I voted the primary, which would usually take five minutes here, took 45 minutes this year. So I'm definitely going to vote early.

What do you think that's going to mean? I think because I live in a swing district that's newly redrawn and Democrats got a little bit of a push behind them because of the abortion issue. So like I was telling our team, I have never seen in a state like we live in, which is a very red state statewide, abortion, pro-abortion signs in people's yards for elections. So it's like vote for choice and here's the candidates to vote for.

So they saw this surge. And so you had people showed up in primaries that never would have voted before. So I think, again, you can do poll watching, do what's right, make sure if you can volunteer to do that, that is wonderful, that is great. But you've got to get out the vote. And you are, I will tell all of you, all of you who say they're going to cheat, they're going to steal, you're the reason why we lose. You're suppressing our own vote. Don't buy in. They love you doing this.

You understand that. They love you saying they're going to cheat, they're going to steal it at 3 a.m. This is exactly what they want because guess what? Your neighbor is not going to stand in line three hours to vote if that's the case. If you convince them that their vote's a waste of time. No, you're 100 percent correct.

Because this is going to be one where if you don't vote early, there's going to be long lines. I want to encourage you also, if you're not getting and downloading the Secular Brothers podcast, you need to do it. Logan and Jordan do it. They do a great job. It's funny.

It's serious. It's content that's news analysis, but it's got a lighthearted edge to it. You can get it wherever you get your podcast. I encourage you to subscribe to that today. And also support the work of the American Center for Law and Justice.

We haven't even talked a lot about fundraising this month. But again, your support of the ACLJ makes all of this possible, including coming to you five days a week with news analysis with a full team to give you analysis. We'll be joined by some of those coming after the break and our legal work around the world.

Go to ACLJ.org. Back with more in a moment. Welcome back to Secular. Take your phone calls. 1-800-684-3110.

That's 1-800-684-3110. And again, we talked about the issue in El Paso, the immigration issue. We want to up to you on some ACLJ victories as well on life and ACLJ work.

What's going on, too? And of course, you always do that at ACLJ.org. We know with this busy time, you're 20 days out from the election day.

People are already voting in many states across the country are sitting in their ballots for those states that have that mail in ballot system. And we're going to keep up to you. That's going to be a Dobbins story. But we do want to make sure you know what we're doing at the ACLJ. You know, it's interesting because the abortion issue, which is playing as a big issue because of the Dobbins decision, it activated some on the left of center that said, you know, we've got to do this. Joe Biden has said that the President said if the Democrats retain the House of Representatives, the first thing they're going to do is try to codify Roe versus Wade. So you've got the political momentum there.

I'm going to get into some of the specifics of what we're doing. But I think for a moment, it's important to understand that the political aspect of this. You have two very distinct worldviews on the issue of life, CeCe. Yeah. And you're seeing that play out in the political world.

Absolutely. You see pro-lifers, which tend to be conservative and Republican, standing for life and, you know, battling to protect the life of unborn babies. And then you see the Biden administration at every single turn, whether it's at at the V.A. or with his just statements of if we, you know, take over Congress, we will codify Roe. He is constantly making pro-abortion statements and trying to take over and federalize the abortion issue, take it back from the states. And they've done some federalizing, Jordan, of the abortion issue because of what the administration has put forward on the Veterans Administration.

Yeah, that's right. We talked about that with the V.A. already attempting to, again, turn those V.A.s into abortion clinics. The V.A. secretary was announcing, hey, we are proud of doing our we did an abortion, didn't get into details about whether or not it was one that would have already been OK under their system, like it was a life decision that had to be made.

But we know that their entire goal is to somehow circumvent what the Supreme Court has done and still turn federal facilities into abortion clinics. So we've got a letter that we have sent off to the V.A. talking about. It's our comments section for this interim rule under what they're calling reproductive health care. This letter went out yesterday.

C.C., let's talk about what we're asserting in this letter. So we did public comments. We submitted public comments and and what the Biden administration did through the V.A., they circumvented not only what the Supreme Court had said in Dobbs, but they actually they circumvented the Administrative Procedures Act by doing this interim rule and not letting a public comment period go on before they actually enforce the rule. But they also circumvented an actual law on the books that says that the V.A. cannot perform abortions. But yet the Biden administration went around that went around the procedures act and put this interim rule in which we are now submitting public comments. What are we saying in our comment? We point out that it not only violates the Administrative Procedures Act, but also that it violates a rule on the books that disallows the V.A.

from performing abortions. We also through ACLJ Action, over 11,000 ACLJ Action members and supporters, they filed their own comment using our tool. So we were able to do the ACLJ comment with 137,000 ACLJ supporters and then through ACLJ Action, we're able to give you the tool which we have in place there at ACLJAction.org and 11,000 plus of you actually sit your own comment in. So this dual effort that we're seeing again and they have to respond to each one. And that's on the federal level. So that's how we're handling it on the federal level where they made this move with the V.A. Now there's also this move in states and we've seen this language start coming up, this perinatal language, and that's very damaging because that is post birth. And we're trying to get to the bottom of how in the world did they decide, the pro-abortion groups decide that that was going to be their marker.

That's where they were going to come in and say, hey, this is where we're going to do this. We're not going to bend on this. We're going to defend the word perinatal. We've got three different demands going out under what are called the basically the Open Records Act in California. Yeah, so we've been filing that perinatal bill and now it is a law because Governor Newsom signed it into law. And I'll just remind everyone that that is the law in California that says a person cannot be subject to criminal liability for perinatal death, which means death after the baby is born.

Now, we absolutely objected to that language. They did make an amendment after our very loud objection and they added due to causes that occurred in utero. But what's so important about that is they don't that same law does not allow a coroner to investigate death. So basically, if a baby dies about 28 days after their death, there is no criminal liability for that. So we sent a legislative Open Records Act to be clear. That was, I think, to protect the abortionist.

Oh, absolutely. Because we know that they they let babies be born alive and babies are born alive during an abortion. And these abortionists can absolutely let that baby die on the table.

They don't have to do anything to protect that life. So, Jordan, in the poll, you know, we're three weeks out. I mean, not even from I guess three weeks exactly from a midterm election. That's going to be very significant.

How big of an issue is this playing? The Democrats want to be the only issue. So Joe Biden today is going to announce the a federal. He's going to say if Democrats win seats in the House and the Senate, they're going to put forward this federal legislation to codify Roe. We've seen this a number of times being announced by Biden. But again, he's going to try and make this the number one issue. It was a very trending top issue six weeks ago.

How about now? It's not. And that's inflation in the economy.

People can pay their bills. Now, I still think that there could be in these very close races a group of people. Obviously, that's why Biden is doing this and the Democrats are pushing this, who could be motivated by the issue in a way against Republicans.

And so when you have a very close race of two or three points and we've been doing some polling at ACLJ action, some of these life initiatives. They're upside down, even in conservative Republican states. People don't like the way they're worded.

They don't understand. It's changing Constitution. We've worked on a number of those states.

Yes. And it just has the education and the other side has dumped millions and millions. So in a lot of states, I think you'll see Republican victories and potentially losses on making sure you're not going to find a right to abortion in your state. And the problem is this is where Planned Parenthood and these groups have unbelievable, unlimited resources. And this is yes, this is what they do. Yeah. And they've been planning for that since Dobbs, since before Dobbs, because we saw that got leaked.

So, you know, they have been planning this. You confuse the issues, especially on ballot initiatives. The language is so confused that you don't know whether to vote yes or no based on that language. And so people need to be very educated when they go to the polls if there's an issue like that on your ballot. And, you know, people that are pro-life need did not think that Dobbs was the end to this battle. They need to get out. They need to vote. And, you know, it's going to be seen in November, this election, abortion is an issue. It's not the top issue, but it's definitely an issue.

We are right around the corner from that. So CNN has an article out yesterday that says focus on abortion rights may not be enough to save Democrats in face of economic concerns. So in other words, are the economic concerns now, Jordan, outweighing the abortion interests?

I think so. I mean, people, these are issues where people got to think about, you know, affording gas, food, planning also now. Because we're being told, you know, and we'll talk about this when we come back, the second half hour of the broadcast, you know, the strategic oil reserves being used and all of that to keep the price down. Well, if that's the case, then what is the price going to be?

So people are very concerned about what the economy looks like post-election, where the Democrats have used everything possible to try and artificially keep prices down to some extent. We want you to join the broadcast, 1-800-684-3110 to give us a call. Be right back. Second half hour coming up. You can learn more about our life changing work.

Become a member today. We'll be right back. Keeping you informed and engaged. Now, more than ever, this is Sekulow. And now your host, Jordan Sekulow. All right, welcome back to Sekulow.

We are taking your phone calls to 1-800-684-3110. We're going to get into the oil issue, the gas issue, the energy issue, because the White House is going to tap back into the strategic reserve. Yet again, depleting that reserve for political purposes, which is an issue we talked a lot about with Mike Pompeo and Rick Grenell, that that's not why it's there. It's there for if we're in war, if we're cut off, if we've got serious issues.

Instead, they're using it to keep prices down to some extent, though it's not really working. And we'll get into some international issues, too, with Iran and Russia and that alliance that has been building between those two countries. So let's go to the phones at 1-800-684-3110. I want to start with Gwen in Georgia.

That's a big battleground state this year. And, Gwen, welcome to the show. You're on the air. Thank you for taking my call. You with us? Yes.

Thank you for taking my call. I just wanted to tell you, I'm here in Georgia, and I just wanted to tell you that I will be voting. I know there was irregularities in the 2020 election and everything, but I think it just strengthened the law here in Georgia and all over the United States.

This goes to what Jordan was saying earlier. Yeah, a lot of states did that. They said, let's clarify our laws. We're not going to do this crazy COVID stuff again if that happened where, you know, we're going to start mailing out ballots. I'm not telling this group of folks who was mad about the last election cycle that they're all wrong because there was crazy stuff. I had three ballots sent to my house that got to me in various ways because I moved around the country and those hadn't been taken off yet.

Three live ballots, not requests, but live ballots. So I get it, but we shouldn't see that at that level. This is not a general election. States like Georgia put in new laws in place so that you wouldn't have these moves made by local... Remember we were having, like, each county was changing rules as we went. So you have to have rules in the game.

I get that. We had that this election cycle. The rules are there.

They're in place. These states went through a lot of criticism, a lot of name-calling in these states. They lost, you know, the All-Star game in Georgia over making sure there is election integrity. So if your state was willing to go to bat for you, lose major business and economics for your state, don't then tell me you're not going to vote or your vote won't matter because they went to bat for you. So if you're in a state that then said, let's make it better, let's make it clear like Georgia did, then I think you got to say your job is to turn out the vote. It's going to be... It's a turnout election.

They're all close. Let's take Kathy's call coming in on line two. Kathy, welcome to Broadcaster on the Air.

Thank you and thank you for taking my call. I have a question about what the word on the street in these Latin American countries is that these people are just packing up and moving up here. When I see people getting off the buses, they look fine. And I know we're a little naive in this country. But I'm just thinking I live 80 miles from the South Dakota border in Minnesota. I would like to go to South Dakota and get out of this political environment in Minnesota.

I can't even do that because it involves too much. How are these people even thinking that this is the best thing to do? Well, I mean the U.S. has an incredible welfare program, all these different programs in place to help people in need. So if you're leaving a country that has a horrible economy or is very dangerous, or maybe you are... So most of them are economically motivated, which is why their asylum claims should not succeed because that is not a valid reason to claim asylum. Asylum is very specific. It's like if the cartel is coming after you specifically to kill you or your family.

You've got to really be able to prove that with evidence. But these economic illegal immigrants are just saying, you know what? It's better to be an illegal immigrant inside the United States than an illegal citizen in my country. That's it. I mean that's the basics. Even when it's tough here, it's still a lot better here than it is there.

That's exactly right. So we're not saying that the people that are coming here are leaving a great situation. They're not. And the problem is we have a porous border.

We don't have controls. It's taxing our cities. Look what's happened in El Paso. I mean the Democratic mayor has put people on buses, sent them to New York because that's where the people wanted to go. And then, you know, the mayor of New York says, what are you doing?

This is a Democratic mayor to a Democratic mayor. So I'll tell you what they're doing. They can't handle it. They've gotten $2 million of federal aid. They've already spent $8 million. This is a lot for a local city to handle. And then when they want to declare a national emergency, the Biden administration comes and says, well, don't do that.

It's going to look bad. So that's what you're dealing with. All right, folks, give us a call. We want to stay updated. 1-800-684-3110.

Go to ACLJ.org. We'll be right back. All right. Welcome back to Secular. We're talking a little bit about gas prices, which is affecting everybody right now. And of course, the planning, too, you know, a lot of people predicting that the reason why the price is even where it is now is because it moves like the White House is about to announce yet again, which is they're going to announce another 10 to 15 million barrels from our strategic reserve to flood the market to try and keep this price high, but to try and keep it below the highest number it got to with inflation. But then, you know, post-election day, what do you think is going to happen?

They're not going to be as concerned on the politics of it. They're not going to be able to keep going to the reserve. They are – again, they're using the strategic reserve as a political tool, as an economic tool, which it's not supposed to be used for. It's not supposed to be used for keep your gallon of gas low. It's your real national emergency crisis war and you're cut off and this is what you've got to use at a point where you're not caring about the price.

This is now being used as a tool to keep prices down, which is not why it exists in the first place. But it's fair to say that we do have an energy crisis and it's going to be a significant energy crisis. And before we went on air, when we were in our pre-meeting, Professor Harry Hutchinson was talking about the impact that this could have on the northeastern portion of the United States, the lack of energy and the concerns over this. And Harry, this is a real problem, a real threat.

Absolutely. And the problems are compounded by virtue of the desperation of the Biden administration and their inability to think coherently about energy policy. So the desperation which characterizes the Biden administration pushes them to double down on expensive, unreliable and unstable sources of energy.

They are looking to transition, if you will, to the so-called green energy future. And so now President Biden has tapped into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, but that is a drop in the bucket. So 10 to 15 million barrels of petroleum. That could be consequential if we're talking about New York City or California. But it's inconsequential if you're talking about worldwide production.

Why? Because OPEC is cutting production by 2 million barrels per day. So tapping into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve basically offsets what OPEC has done for five or six days.

That's it. So this idea we're going into the reserves when it solves a five-day issue, there's just nothing. The Saudis, though, said when the President went and said we want more production, the Saudis said no.

What was the significance there? Well, I think it's a signal that the United States has lost influence in the Middle East. And now the Saudis are doing something that America should do. They are putting their own interests first.

President Biden continues to push for the interest of the rest of the world at the expense of the American people. European leaders are doing precisely the same thing, and now the European people are beginning to revolt. And so you have huge demonstrations in Prague, in Paris, in Berlin, and in the United Kingdom, where electricity prices are scheduled to rise by three to four hundred percent.

Some families are seeing their gas bills go up from around, let's say, three hundred dollars a month to fifteen hundred dollars a month. Now, the British government, of course, is going to intervene because it doesn't want to accept the political consequences. But the consequences are coming, and they're coming to New England. New England will face, according to energy producers, blackout during the dead of winter.

Why? Because the United States has given up our energy independence, number one. Number two, we are sending liquefied natural gas to Europe when that liquefied natural gas should be sent to New England. So there are huge problems on the horizon. Are we going to see a situation where New England could literally have no available fuel or significant blackouts and brownouts in the winter? Absolutely. The petroleum or energy suppliers in Europe are absolutely warning this, warning the people, and they are sending out signals.

They're clear signals. But guess what? Winter will hit the hardest after Election Day. So, of course you want to change the debate. If you're on the Democratic side of this, you want to change the debate to abortion.

Because you sure don't want to be talking about power outages in the winter. That's the stretch that it is. It can be an important issue to folks. It's a very important issue to our supporters. As a life, it's probably the number one issue for a lot of our supporters on how they decide who they're going to vote for and decisions they'll make politically. Flip that around.

They're trying to do that on the other side and say, make this your priority. Ignore the war in Ukraine. Ignore China. Ignore the gas prices, inflation.

Ignore your house price. Ignore the fact that you've lost 25% of your 401k savings. 25% is the estimate. So, at that time, again, when you put abortion next to you've lost a quarter of your life savings, guess what likely is going to win out? And guess what's going to likely motivate people more?

Economics. And guess who voters trust a lot more in the economy and business and when it comes to inflation and dealing with these issues? Republicans. So, it should be a wave election. Now, we're a hyper-partisan country. So, the difference between winning and losing is a few points.

And it's interesting. Like, some of the models still show the Democrats holding onto the Senate. Real clear politics is now showing Republicans picking up to 52 and that's not including Arizona. So, I mean, you know, it is there for the taking for whoever does a better job these final three weeks. At this point, it's getting out the vote. It is getting out the vote.

So, let me ask you this, Harry. You talk about the inept attitude or process that the Biden administration is dealing with on energy. There's a report that the Biden administration keeps delaying oil and gas permitting due to – this is unbelievable to me offshore – due to a mathematical error that they could have corrected months ago and still haven't done. Yes. Which is hard to believe, okay?

Well, yes and no. It raises a particular question. Was the error intentional or was it unintentional? And I lean to the side of believing that it was a deliberate error.

Why? Because it's another excuse for delaying fossil fuel production in the United States. Keep in mind, that's virtually the Biden administration's number one goal. And so, essentially, they're saying to the American people, let the American people suffer, but let's soften the suffering before Election Day. And I think if you look at the Inflation Reduction Act, it was all about green energy.

It was all about this transition to expensive and unreliable energy. That is their new religion. That is the religion of the left.

And you know what's interesting? You put that issue, like we said, the abortion issue. We got a call coming in from Theresa that I'd like to answer because all of this is – a lot of this is kind of hide the ball, move the goalposts, so to speak. But let's go ahead and take Theresa's call. Hey, Theresa. Welcome to Secular. You're on the air. Hi.

Thank you for taking my call. My question is, if they're turning the VAs into abortion centers, how does that affect the care of our veterans? I have family members and friends that cannot get sick.

Yeah, I know. They're waiting a long time for eye appointments, surgeries. Yeah, general care of the VA. How does it affect it?

Let me put this. It's an overtax system to begin with. The VA has had a whole series of issues. And then you put abortion politics inside the Veterans Administration hospitals, and you ask yourself, is this the new priority? Because it sure seems that way. I mean, they're bragging about this.

I think that is correct. So, essentially, the Biden Administration has deprioritized health care for veterans. Remember, essentially, we've made a commitment to veterans to take care of them. And why are they doing this? Because for the Biden Administration, it's politics all of the time. And at the end of the day, they don't really care – this is my opinion, of course – about veterans.

They care essentially about satisfying their masters at Planned Parenthood. All right, folks. We're going to take your phone calls at 1-800-684-310, whether it's on the oil issue, whether it's on the energy issue, whether it is on the politics, races in your state, election issues. We want to take those calls.

We have 20 days out. We want to talk to you directly. 1-800-684-310.

That's 1-800-684-3110. It's all about turnout. There will always wait to those folks who – the Election Day voters – who haven't made up their mind, they will still try to work for those on both sides. And you're seeing from the Biden Administration today an announcement on abortion, an announcement on oil. So there's the two issues right there. Yeah, I mean, look, this is for real.

And we are getting within the real zone here. Folks, support the work of the ACLJ at ACLJ.org. We encourage you to do that, ACLJ.org. Also, Jordan Logan will do another podcast today, secularbrothers.com.

And you can figure out all the places you can hear or listen to or watch the podcast, Spotify, wherever you get it. We encourage you to do it. It will be on Facebook and Rumble.

And I know Rumble has been a big source of increase in viewership for us across the board. So we encourage you to do that, secularbrothers.com. And again, support the ongoing work of the ACLJ at ACLJ.org.

We're going to get into a little bit of what's happening with Russia and Ukraine as well. And your phone call is at 800-684-3110. All right, welcome back to the set here. We're taking your calls to 1-800-684-3110. That's 1-800-684-3110.

You can still be part of the show today. Let's go to Edward in Ohio on Line 39. Edward, before you get your call, let me ask you about the race in Ohio because we're getting callers from states around the country that have the most attention. So if you had to make a call right now, J.D. Vance, Tim Ryan, take your partisan politics out of it. Who do you think wins if the election were held today?

I hope it's going to be Vance. It's very close there. I think some polls showed him two down, two up. There was another debate last night.

I think he's done very good in those debates. But go ahead, Edward. I just wanted to make a comment. I just got fuel yesterday. 100 gallons was already at $4.99 a gallon. I just spent almost $530 for only 100 gallons.

That's not even close to what I'm going to need for the winter. And look at the price. Yeah, and unfortunately the price is not going to get better.

But this is the reality. I mean, we've gone from a country that was energy independent, the strongest military in the world, a stock market that was roaring, an economy that was roaring. And in 19 months, we've gone from that to a major conflict in Eastern Europe that could turn into a world war if we're not very careful.

And I don't think the administration is being very careful. Energy costs that are affecting everybody. There's no one not affected by this.

Every business is affected by this. And this is the reality. But then you find out that the administration wants to cut a deal with Iran back in the nuclear deal. And then Colonel Westmith is with us. And the drones that are now, the Russians are using to attack civilians in Ukraine, guess where they're coming from? Iran. Yeah, Russia is now purchasing weapons from our declared enemy.

And it's crazy. The stakes for the United States and Europe have suddenly been raised even further by Russia's use of Iranian drones. It indicates that Putin is nowhere near calling this war off, backing away from Ukraine.

It has the potential to really escalate out of control. Ukraine is not going to give up. And they've indicated they're not going to surrender any of their territory, including Crimea. So Putin is upping his game. If these Iranian drones, which are attacking civilian targets as well as infrastructure, if they don't give Putin his desired result, the question becomes, what does he do next? Does he use chemical weapons? Does he resort to using tactical nuclear weapons?

And then the larger question is, if he does that, what is the response of NATO and the United States? This is escalating, and it has the potential, Jay, to really escalate beyond our control. And Jordan, you just said we're 20 days out from an election. So you got all of this unrest going on globally. How does that play into the election right now?

Or is it still too remote? No, I think that what you'll have is different world actors doing things to influence the election, or trying to. So whether it's the Russians trying to escalate or the Chinese President, again, we saw the move by the Saudis. I think, listen, I think the Saudis were trying to deliver. It wasn't so much an anti-American move. It was an anti-Biden move. Now it's hurting Americans. But what they're saying is, we don't want to deal with this administration.

He went over there, had the meeting. Obviously that didn't work out very well. He said really bad things about them. Trump administration had a really good relationship with them.

They've done a lot of kind of, they're starting to modernize some. They're not perfect. They're far from perfect, but they're a strong ally.

And yet they decided to deliver a blow. Now you can say the same thing with the Chinese in the last election cycle with Trump with COVID. And so those things, I mean, so it's happening on both sides. I don't think, again, the more we're involved in Ukraine, and you see now Russia partnering with Iran. This is, again, with these drones, the fact that Iran has decided to take these steps when they're still trying to get into a discussion, this administration is still trying to get a nuclear deal with them. Instead of just saying, like the Russians, they're the enemy, they won't classify them as such. So they're playing two sides with Iran.

Yeah, this is what's so bizarre. So Wes, we've got a situation where China's saber rattling again with Taiwan. Russia has already gone into Ukraine. You've got Czechoslovakia is very worried about where all this will go because of energy issues for them. So you've got energy being used as a weapon.

Oh, that's the alarming thing about this, Jay. This escalation of the war in Ukraine, and there's no other way to put it, this is a real escalation of the war. It's coming at the beginning of winter. Just yesterday, President Zelensky of Ukraine announced that because of these renewed Russian attacks, that 30% of the power plants in Ukraine have now been destroyed at the beginning of winter. 30% of the power plants have been destroyed in a week, they said, last week.

What's the line where the destruction of the power, so that means ability to keep things warm because it's getting cold there already, what happens? That's the unknown answer to that question, Jay, because does Ukraine at some point surrender and throw in the towel, or does NATO and the U.S. bolster their involvement in the war so that it becomes essentially World War III? I mean, I'll give you another example of how this war could widen. Because Iran is now selling these drones to Russia to use in Ukraine, Israel thus far has not come out on either side in this war.

But now, an Israeli cabinet member just yesterday said, because Iran is now involved, that Israel should get involved, and now Ukraine is requesting an air defense system from Israel. So again, this has the potential not just to be a European war, but to be a Middle East war, and we're in the middle of it. Could we get sucked into World War III here? Absolutely we could.

I mean, of the scale of where you've got to mobilize? I pray not. I pray not. But when you go into a situation like this, there are so many unknowns, and we might know what our intentions are, but the enemy gets a vote too.

Yeah. So to me, Jordan, when you look at it with 20 days out to an election, that's going to determine the fate of the House and the Senate and governorships all over, but let's talk about the federal level, the House and the Senate. You say to yourself, we've got Colonel Smith here saying we could be on the verge, and others have said it too, it's not a shock that we could be on the verge of a world war. And at the same time, you've got an economic collapse, an energy crisis, and then the left is running on, let's get abortion rights protected. Yeah, and I'm not sure when the last time, I guess it would be Vietnam, where you would have probably the majority of the country not wanting, supporting even the efforts, they would say we're not willing to send our men and women to die for the Ukrainians and to prop up that government. And it's not to say that we can't, again, take other measures to support their fight against Russia, that's not going to these wars of aggression, but I would say it's like the Vietnam days. Those days led to inflation and the U.S. standing in the world very low, and the same thing we're seeing in our military, which can't get recruits, can't recruit.

It'll be worse. It's the same kind of thing, because who is going to join up right now when your President is using words like nuclear armageddon? How difficult is that military, and you follow this obviously, Colonel Smith, what's the situation on recruitment, because it is a problem. Oh, they've lost, they've missed their recruiting goals this year by tens of thousands, the army alone missed it by 20,000. People are not willing to sign up, and there are a lot of factors. Of course, why would they want to sign up? They're going to go down and be sent down to the border to do maid services. It's really trash. That's going on, plus the military leadership at the Pentagon, they are obsessed with domestic terrorism in the ranks and critical race theory, that's a turnoff to most recruits, because they're from the Midwest and the South, and they don't usually buy into a lot of that.

They are really missing their mark, because they're not in touch with the troops. What's the podcast going to be this afternoon, have you all decided yet? We'll get into a little bit of everything. There's a lot of things we didn't touch on this, it's controversial stuff going on. Secularbrothers.com is a great way to download information on where you can get the podcast, of course it's on Rumble as well, Facebook and YouTube, and anywhere you get your podcasts, we encourage you to do that. Again, at secularbrothers.com, support the work of the ACLJ at ACLJ.org, that's ACLJ.org, a great way to stay engaged, also follow us on all of our social media applications, and we'll talk to you tomorrow.