Mayor Pete follows Trump's lead, visits East Palestine

This is Jay Sekulow. Mayor Pete finally gets to Ohio.

He follows former President Trump's lead and visits East Palestine. 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. Interesting dynamic. Interesting issue. Mayor Pete arrives in East Palestine finally following Donald Trump. FEMA did not want to show up.

Remember that? FEMA said, no, it's too big. It's not what we do. Mayor Pete hadn't been. Of course, the President hadn't been. None of them have been. So ask yourself this question.

I think this is the fundamental question everybody needs to ask themselves. Why is the federal government, which is always trying to get involved in things, sometimes when they're supposed to, sometimes when they're not, not getting involved in this? What is it that has stopped them? I've got a theory and that is, my theory is I think definitely proving out in that they already are blaming, they politicized this. They are blaming the previous administration. I'm going to read you a statement.

This is a tweet from Mayor Pete, from Secretary Buttigieg. We're constrained by law on some areas of rail regulation like the breaking rule withdrawn by the Trump administration in 2018 because of a law passed by Congress in 2015. But we are using powers we do have to keep people safe.

First of all, you have a real emergency. So you're not constrained by a breaking law. I mean, think about this for a moment. They didn't want to go because they didn't know what to do. And the only reason they went is because Donald Trump went. Yeah, and he did the same thing by passing the blame. I think that's what he always does. He never takes responsibility for anything, any wrongdoing. And what's funny here is first he blames Donald Trump, but then he follows Donald Trump's lead by finally going to Palestine after Donald Trump goes there.

Because they almost, it's fair to say, maybe this is an overstatement, so I'm looking at Will and he'll tell me if it is or isn't. It is almost as if Trump embarrassed them into going. Like, we weren't going to go, man, Donald Trump's going, we better do something. Here's what happened when the former President was there yesterday. We're going to find time to come back if necessary.

If they don't come back and give you the treatment that you need, we will be back. The Biden administration should ensure that every family has the option of moving and homes and everything else until this thing is straightened out. Listen, this is what a President does. I don't understand for the life of me what is in fact motivating right now the federal government.

I mean, why doesn't the President show up there and talk to the residents? Now, interesting, Norfolk Southern, who took some responsibility for this, they need to be taking, frankly, a lot of responsibility for this. I don't want to cast liability yet. That's going to be, I'm sure, litigated aggressively. But the fact of the matter is, this is a real emergency. It involves FEMA because people are having water issues and safety issues. It involves the Department of Transportation, which is Pete Buttigieg's area. He's pressed by a reporter. Do we have time for this? No, we're going to do that next segment. The guy's pressed by a reporter and he says, I'm on my personal time. He is the Secretary of Transportation.

Ask yourself, what is it that they're thinking? And how bad does it have to get? I mean, this was a horrible event that happened in Ohio. How bad does it have to get before the Biden administration shows up, acknowledges it, and tries to make things right?

Again, they were shamed into it once Donald Trump went, and they had not been. It's interesting that when the former President was there, so was Senator J.D. Vance, and also, of course, and this was significant, the mayor of the town, who's been on every network he can be on, saying, we need help.

And the federal government response is awful, to just be blunt. And this is where you've got to take action, folks. ACLJ, we're involved. We're going to be hearing from a congressman from Iowa, Congressman Davidson.

We're talking about this and a number of other issues as well. Also, we'll take your calls. 1-800-684-3110. Do you think that President Trump got Buttigieg to finally show up?

Get your comments on that. 800-684-3110, 1-800-684-3110. Sometimes I say it's the Ministry of Presence. You just have to be there when a situation like this is unfolding. You have to show up.

And that's what needed to happen here. Show up. We'll be back with more, including your calls. 800-684-3110 in just a moment.

Welcome back to the broadcast, everyone. We're taking your calls at 800-684-3110. We're talking about a lot of issues today, including some updates on ACLJ matters. But right now, there is bipartisan pressure for the United States government to do more from the folks in East Palestine. And the problem is, and this is significant, the President of the United States has not been to this site. The Secretary of Transportation, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, former mayor, small-town mayor, that's how he ran him, a small-town mayor. And my answer to that is don't put small-town mayors in charge of big departments. He doesn't go until after Donald Trump says he's going.

Donald Trump was there yesterday. The mayor of East Palestine has been on every news outlet he can be on saying, we've got problems here. We've got a water issue. We have a safety issue.

We've got problems here and we need help. And the administration's indecisiveness on this is part and parcel of their indecisiveness on everything. And the juxtaposition of the President of the United States going to Ukraine saying we're going to spend another $500 million after we just have spent another $500 million a couple of months back and doesn't go to a domestic problem that is serious. It just needs the encouragement of the President and the attention of the President to get these agencies involved. And the reason all the conservative media, it's amazing to me that conservative media is covering it and the other media pretty much not. Yeah, and it's just like this Biden administration constantly.

It's too little, too late. They have done absolutely nothing for Ohio and were concerned about, you know, foreign issues. That we should be concerned about what's happening in the United States and specifically when Ohio has such a catastrophe. And as you said, the mayor is begging, begging for help and attention. They have health issues. They have water issues.

They have safety issues. And for the Department of Transportation head, Pete Buttigieg, to go only after former President Donald Trump goes and shows compassion and attention is ridiculous. And then these guys, the secretary of transportation, he's on the streets of Washington. I guess it was Washington, D.C. Daily Caller reporters there asking him a question. You got to listen to this carefully, folks, because it's windy outside.

But what he says is epidemic of the problem that this entire administration has. It's listen, you don't go to East Palestine. You don't speak to the minister of defense in China.

You got problems here. Take a listen to this. Jenny's here at the Daily Caller News Foundation.

What do you have to say to the folks in Ohio, East Palestine who are suffering right now? Well, I'd refer you to about a dozen interviews I've given today. And if you'd like to arrange a conversation, make sure to reach out to our press office. I've had that conversation with you.

You don't have a message for them? I do. And I shared it with the press many times today. I'd refer you to those comments.

Would you mind sharing it with us? No, I'm going to refer you to the comments that I made to the press, because right now I'm taking some personal time and I'm walking down the street. Are you going down there? What's up? Are you going down there at all? Yeah, I am. When are you going? I'll share that when I'm ready. OK, thank you.

Can I get a photo with you? Yeah. Then he takes a picture of the reporter. He's on his personal time. I mean, you're the secretary of commerce, of transportation, and there's a crisis. You don't have personal time.

You're on the clock. But this is the problem, and I'm going to take it to the next level of problem, which is the problem with China and what's going on there. The minister of defense—that's what the Chinese government, the Communist Party calls their—what we would call secretary of defense—is not in contact with the secretary of defense of the United States.

So ask yourself, what's not connecting here? We've got war in Eastern Europe that's involving Russia and Ukraine that's not going on year two. We have China taking all kinds of aggressive action, and our minister—their minister of defense is not speaking to our secretary of defense. Domestically, in East Palestine, we have a problem, and the federal government, FEMA—FEMA, Federal Emergency Management Administration, that's what FEMA is, that's what they do, said they could not come. It's not their jurisdiction. They weren't equipped for it. It was—did they initially say it was too big, too big of an issue to bring water, blankets, and heaters if people need it, to provide temporary housing?

This is what the federal government's supposed to do, actually, and they're not. So I'm going to leave you with that. We're going to be hearing from Congressman Davidson in the next segment coming up on a host of issues that we're working on with him and others.

But I'm going to—he's from Ohio, so I'm going to certainly ask him about this. Let me change gears. Our lawyers right now are on the phone with lawyers from the United States Department of Justice. On this issue of—and it's a big one—is these pro-life students we represent. We got a preliminary injunction entered by the court in the case involving the National Archives Museum. They did the same thing.

Students were told not to come in to the museum with their shirts that said, we're the pro-life generation. Same thing happened in Smithsonian. Actually, we got first notice of the case was at Smithsonian. Filed federal lawsuits in both of them, separate cases, obviously, separate locations. We got the preliminary injunction agreed to by the National Archives Museum, and at that case, we go into a 90-day mediation period, but that doesn't get resolved. And we want to know who put this policy in place, that they thought they could censor out pro-life speech, which is what they did.

What we then had to do, we wanted the same arrangement with the National Smithsonian Institute, which is where the museum is, Air and Space. So far, they haven't agreed to it. So we are in court on both of these, but one has the injunction, the other one not yet. Now, we said we'd give them notice, which is what you have to do under the local rules, but understand what this was. Targeted discrimination because the students were pro-life.

That is all this is about. You could go in there with any insignia you wanted, but not pro-life generation. Yeah, and you know, the Smithsonian's response that this was just a mistake by the security guards, that they had misinterpreted the procedures. You know, that's kind of a very lame excuse because clearly it wasn't just one security guard that made a mistake or misinterpreted the rules.

It was the majority of them, several security guards, and you know, the one at the very end kind of wringing his hands going, you all are just about to make my day because he's going to kick him out. I mean, that goes beyond a mistake. Somebody told them.

I mean, this was a concerted effort. It was not just one person misinterpreting, getting something wrong. It was really every security guard there.

So we really want to get to the bottom of this. And again, the Smithsonian has admitted it's a mistake, but I think it goes further than that. Well, I mean, when the security personnel, the police officers are saying you're going to make our day, there's just more to it.

And to blame it on the security, listen, I don't think the police officers were right in what they did, obviously, but I don't think they made this up. So there's a question that a number of congressmen asked the Smithsonian on this. One of them was where you made aware of the alleged incident said to have occurred on January 20th, 2023. They said, and the response was, I was made aware for a few hours during the afternoon, visitors wearing pro-life hats were asked to remove those hats at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. I immediately asked my team to address this matter and take corrective action.

I learned that corrective action had already begun as soon as the individuals on the scene became aware of the error. That's not true. Now, he may not have known that wasn't true, but they were told to leave at that point and when they were outside waiting for the bus, the security personnel came up to them, these are federal protective services, said, y'all are making my day.

Yeah, absolutely. They didn't take corrective action that day for sure. They were kicked out.

They kicked out the kids wearing the pro-life. Now, they might have taken corrective action at least telling the security guards what they did was wrong later, but it certainly did not happen. Yes, I'm sure after we filed. We sent our letter, we sent a preservation letter saying, by the way, we're going to do litigation, you better hold on to all your records, which they had to do. Then we filed a federal lawsuit. So here's what happens.

We do get discovery in this and discovery means we get to ask questions. I want to know who put this policy in place, who came up with the great idea that you could censor out an entire group of speech you disagreed with simply because you disagreed with it. That's exactly and precisely what happened. So, as I said, as it relates to the National Archives Museum, we do have an injunction in place.

Students can go back in there, no problem. They issued an apology. Case is not over. We've sued for damages. We want a permanent injunction.

We also want to know who did these policies. So all of that's proceeding. Interestingly, as it relates to the case involving the Smithsonian, we don't have an injunction in place in that one. We haven't. We asked for a permanent injunction.

We hadn't moved for a preliminary yet. You give the, under the D.C. rules, the District of Columbia, you give them notice. We've given them notice. And if it's not resolved, then we're on the phone with them. Literally, as we're on the air live, for those of you who are watching live, Ben Sisney and a couple of other lawyers are on the phone with the Department of Justice.

It's the Department of Justice handling this. Interestingly, they said what disciplinary action that was taken. As Cece said, the instruction to visitors to remove their pearly paths was a mistake, a misinterpretation of what was permissible. What was permissible?

Well, I guess wearing the t-shirt was really permissible. But why did they think and why was it at both locations unrelated to each other? Another museum, not the Smithsonian, National Archives, and the Smithsonian.

A fluke of nature? I don't think so. All right, coming up, Congressman Davidson from Ohio will be joining us. Important because we've got a lot of issues to discuss with him. Multiple issues, including what's going on in the state. We've got issues on religious freedom. A whole host of issues.

Pro-life issue as well. So, we want to encourage you to give us a call if you want to talk to us, 800-684-3110. If you're watching us on social media, share this with your friends.

We'll be back with more in just a moment. Again, if you want to talk to us, 1-800-684-3110. Joining us now is Congressman Warren Davidson. He represents Ohio's 8th Congressional District. He's a member of the House Financial Services Committee.

He's a West Point graduate, as well as an MBA from the University of Notre Dame, Fighting Irish, and spent 15 years in his own business, and is now representing the good people of the 8th District, but helping all of us on a lot of issues. Congressman, we've got a lot of issues to discuss with you, but before we do, we've been concerned at the ACLJ, American Center for Law and Justice, of the lack of response by the federal government as it relates to the tragedy in your state and East Palestine. I want to get your assessment on whether the federal government response here is adequate, or do you see it improving?

What's your sense? Well, first and foremost, no, the federal response is not adequate, or, you know, if it is, it's only recently adequate. I spoke with one of our fire chiefs, and the state of Ohio has a hazmat response team that comes out to big disasters like this, and he was on the scene, you know, shortly after the train derailed, and explained to me how they contain the liquid, you know, so if it stayed in the tanker cars, it could have exploded and vaporized and caused a much bigger blast radius, a much more consequential, you know, air quality problem for a wider area, and if it stayed as liquid and you just emptied the train car and let it run out, it would go deeper into the ground, have more groundwater contamination risk, and potentially spread further, so the least bad option is they put, you know, a way to contain that liquid and then ignited it, and it, you know, of course, burst into flames in a lot of cases, depending on the kind of liquid, but, you know, no good options, and then from there, the response was not good, you know, whether that was, you know, the way that you care for the people and get them to a place where not just they are safe, but they feel safe, and the reality is, whether it's the Ohio EPA or the federal EPA, early on they were saying, yeah, if things are safe, you can go back home, you can drink the water and everything else. What we know now is people are coming into the emergency room with rashes, they're having problems.

You've seen people go on the scene and disturb the water and look at the chemical trace on the surface. You're like, well, there's issues going on here people aren't wanting to confront and acknowledge, and we need all the resources our country has to bring to bear here. It's hundreds of yards from the Pennsylvania border, the water is affecting Ohio, Pennsylvania, potentially West Virginia, Kentucky as well, and, you know, people are concerned about it, and I think, you know, finally the attention is on it that it should be, but I'm not sure all the resources are still there because people that want to be out of that community and to a place they feel safe don't have a lot of options right now. Last question about this one, Congressman, and that is, why do you think that federal government, FEMA especially, but also the Department of Transportation were so hesitant to, or have been so hesitant to engage? Well, I mean, for one, the Department of Transportation is not led by somebody who should be leading it, you know, people kind of already knew that, and if you didn't, two years on the job, the performance by Mayor Pete has been disappointing to anybody that cares about competence. We've been, believe me, we've been addressed, we lost him? Okay, we'll get him back. We're going to be getting to another topic with him, and that involves the Merchant Marines, and we have ACLJs involved in this.

CeCe, let's talk about this. This is the Merchant Marine Academy, which is actually under the Department of Transportation of all the divisions. It's under Pete Buttigieg. Congressman, we've got you back. I want to move on to the situation at Wiley Hall at the Merchant Marine Academy, the Christ on the Water painting that had been there for 80 years. The Military Freedom from Religion Foundation sent a demand in to have it moved and was covered. Also, ACLJ, we weighed in on this as well, because you're always concerned about overreactions in these cases. How did you get involved in this? Because this is a big issue. We got contacted by a parent whose son is a cadet there.

How did you get involved in this? Yeah, one of my colleagues started reading a letter, and we said, holy cow, what's going on? And Mike Garcia, a Naval Academy grad, became aware of it first because of one of his constituents, and then he led a letter, and then we wanted to respond, and I think all the service academy grads and a bunch of other members of Congress came back and said, this is wrong, and it's wrong on its merit, but certainly don't keep it covered up.

Since then, they've decided to move it to the chapel where clearly religious activity can take place, but the place that it was moved to 80 years ago served as an interfaith chapel, and that's how it wound up there. But the idea that a depiction of Jesus is somehow a state establishment of religions is wrong on the law, but that's not the first time this guy, Mikey Weinstein, has been wrong on the law. He's an activist, and frankly, everyone in uniform should just ignore this guy. Well, you know, it's interesting. We've tangled with him.

I know him. I've debated him. We've gone to bat on different sides of case issues, obviously.

We take a very different view of the Constitution. But in these kind of situations, what we're always concerned about is what I call governmental overreaction. Right.

So usually there's an extreme reaction when Mikey Weinstein sends these letters. You know, although, yes, the Academy absolutely had the right to have this painting on their wall, when they get a letter like this threatening, they will usually just pull it down. Well, here they covered it. Same idea. That's right.

Covered it, pull it down. So we sent a letter as well making sure that they knew that by the law, by the Constitution, they did not have to do this. That this painting had been up since 1947 and they could keep it up.

And so the fact that they have kept it is a win. Yeah, I think the fact that it's not, Congressman, I appreciate you all and your colleagues getting involved in this because the overreaction potential on these cases, honestly, Congressman, can be great. They can really overreact these Academies. Yeah, and look, these guys are, you know, if they're in the news, they're disappointed. You know, they only want to be in the news for good things and this is just like risk aversion. And that's how a lot of people in uniform, in particular, respond to this activist's, you know, letters and other protests.

And so they just want it to go away and a lot of times they do things that, frankly, reward the behavior and the best thing they could do is just ignore this guy, in my assessment anyway, and, you know, keep doing what we've been doing and, you know, defend the Constitution. We press forward and got a good result. I mean, at least it's staying up. Are we able to take the call, Will? Yeah. Congressman, we got a call. I want to take this because we got time to answer it. Jim from Oregon, go ahead.

Oh, hello. I think that the Administration is more interested in power than in service and during when Britain was bombed from the air, the Prime Minister and the royal family would go out and visit places and there was a sense of connectedness between the British people and their leaders. Jim raises a good question and that is, and we touched on this in the beginning, I want to close with this. I can't figure out what is motivating other than, like you said, the person running the agency doesn't know what they're doing and that you don't put that kind of situation under a department that big. But there is a need in your state for help right now.

Yeah, there is. And frankly, you know, A, our state needs to communicate that need with one voice. That finally is happening. And then B, the federal response needs to be there for it. I mean, if we have a federal EPA, then if this doesn't qualify for why it would with the situation that involves Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Kentucky, at a minimum, then why do we have a federal EPA? And the reality is the same day that our governor was saying it's safe for people to come back on scene, the director of the EPA was saying, well, we'll send our people out when it's safe to send them out. Here at the EPA, you should be the first people on this team. I was hosting Sean Hannity's broadcast.

We had a former special agent in charge of the EPA and he said exactly what you did. Congressman Davidson, thanks for being with us. We appreciate it. Thanks for your hard work on all these issues.

Very good. All right, so coming up, we've got a pro-life discussion coming up. We're going to talk more about the whole situation of what's going on in Atlanta, Georgia, which is mind-boggling, but it is the thing that's going on, so we're going to talk about what the implications of all this are. We'll be taking your calls as well at 1-800-684-3110. Next 30 minutes, talk about any of the topics we discuss, you can weigh in on at 800-684-3110. Support the work of the ACLJ at ACLJ.org.

That's ACLJ.org. And follow us, at Jay Sekulow, at Jordan Sekulow, at Logan Sekulow, and at ACLJ on all your social media apps. We'll be back with more in a moment. Keeping you informed and engaged, now more than ever, this is Sekulow. And now your host, Jay Sekulow.

Hey, everybody, welcome back to the broadcast. If you're just joining us, first segment of the broadcast, we were talking about the situation in East Palestine as it relates to the lack of federal response, which has been atrocious. We just had on Congressman Davidson from Ohio talking about that horrible situation.

At the Merchant Marine Academy, there was an attempt, something we were concerned about is the silencing. They have a picture of Jesus on the water, had been there for 80 years, covered by a curtain until they figured out what to do after they got a threat letter from the Military Freedom from Religion Foundation, Mikey Weinstein's group, who I've tangled with before. And the resolution of that is being moved to the chapel, which I think even he, I think Mikey Weinstein is satisfied with.

I'm sure if he's not satisfied with it, he'll let us know. But that matter looks like it has now been resolved. We also want to talk about a situation on the life front because our ACLJ Action team, remember ACLJ is a nonprofit 501c3 legal group, legal organization, and the ACLJ Action is a 501c4 advocacy group, so they could do more direct lobbying, things like that. There is a real issue going on on the life fight. We're back in Ohio on another one. And our team up in Washington has put together a memo on this. But there is a real problem going on as it relates to every initiative that was pro-life put on the last election cycle lost, every single one. And we're trying to analyze all that. And now there is a move with a heartbeat bill that's trying to be preempted in Ohio with an abortion amendment that would be so overbroad it would be unreal.

But why don't you set it up a little bit. I think it would be another potential catastrophe happening in Ohio. We had a very much pro-abortion group that has submitted to the Ohio Attorney General a constitutional amendment, which would basically, there is the heartbeat bill did pass and it was signed into law. It's been enjoined by a court. So there is a heartbeat law in Ohio that's been passed and right now it just has an injunction staying it. But this constitutional amendment would once again give a constitutional right to abortion. And it's an amendment that's so broadly written that it could potentially allow abortions in Ohio up to the point of birth because of the broad language.

It does contain language with viability, but then it also contains that language we always talk about, the health of the mother. So it's going to take a state that has passed a heartbeat bill protecting a life if a heartbeat is detected to basically allowing abortion on demand at any time. Look folks, this is a consequential fight because the overturning of Roe vs Wade was great. I want to say absolutely great. Thrilled with that.

I never thought I'd live to see it and we did. Great. Now the fight goes to these states and in the states we're having some trouble.

I mean let's just be honest. The pro-abortion forces, the Planned Parenthoods of the world were ready for this. Yeah, absolutely. And they were prepared to do battle on this.

Absolutely they were. And as we've told everybody, once Roe vs Wade is overturned and again the Dobbs decision was great, the fight goes to the states and that's where we're at and even states that are conservative and have good laws, we are seeing that fight and we've seen, like you said, when it's gone to a ballot initiative, the language is always so confusing and they confuse the issue too. They'll bring in miscarriages and things that don't have anything to do with the law.

They confuse and then we lose the battle there. So it's very important that we're engaged in every single one of these states. And we are, and ACLJ Action is, and get information at ACLJAction.org is a great way, another way to stay engaged and fight on these issues.

Coming up next, Rick Grinnell is going to be joining us. We're talking about the situation in Ohio. Folks, we're talking about the situation in Ohio because these people are suffering and the federal government's response has been pathetic, to be honest. And it's a bigger disconnect than just the federal government not responding to that particular incident. It's the federal government's lack of response on so many incidents that we're trying to figure out what is going on here, what is it that's motivating this to take place, a lack of leadership across these departments. As I said, China's Minister of Defense is not talking to the Secretary of Defense for the United States of America.

These are P5 countries, permanent members of the United Nations. Counterparts are not speaking to each other. We're going to talk to Rick Grinnell. We'll take your calls as well at 1-800-684-3110. That's 800-684-3110. Support the work of the ACLJ at ACLJ.org.

Back with more in a moment. Hey, welcome back to the broadcast. Everyone, we're taking your calls at 800-684-3110.

Our friend and colleague, Rick Grinnell, is joining us. And, of course, Rick has run agencies of the federal government, so he knows Rick. I know I sound like, and I said this to our audience, I sound like a broken record in one sense, but I really am feeling for the people of East Palestine. The idea that FEMA would not go in, the Federal Emergency Management Administration, immediately when this happened, to get control of the situation was one thing. Then the Environmental Protection Agency is saying, hey, we're not going, it could be dangerous, which is exactly why the Environmental Protection Agency should be going to assess the danger. Then the head of the Department of Transportation, because this was a rail accident, which is like our plane almost accidents and clippings and almost near misses that have been happening, he doesn't go until after Donald Trump shows up.

And then when Donald Trump announces, he's going to East Palestine. Lo and behold, the mayor's coming, but yesterday he couldn't be bothered from a reporter with the Daily Caller because he was on his personal time. I remember seeing you in the White House like all the time.

I don't remember any of us having personal time, but go ahead. Yeah, no, look, transparency, as we say, is not political, and the whole Mayor Pete team is really caught here. I don't know if you saw, but the press secretary was caught on camera trying to get everybody to turn their cameras off because then she could talk to them if there was no record of it. And that's the game in Washington. You know that game well.

It's a terrible game. We must demand transparency, which is why I love ACLJ. We always push legally to say, just be transparent. We're not asking you to spin us or to represent a conservative idea. We're just asking you to be transparent about your decisions. And so we got to continue to push that.

I hope people will support us on that. But we see this with Mayor Pete right now is they're scrambling to kind of cover up. The whole Biden administration really ignored what was going on in Ohio.

I certainly hope it's not because Ohio is solidly red and Trump country. But it seems like that. It seems like they're playing partisan politics with disasters.

And I'll just finish with this, Jay. I think it's really important that we highlight the fact that shutting down pipelines, which usually carry hazardous material very safely. When you shut down pipelines, you put more pressure on trains and trucks. And that means disasters are going to happen with hazardous material because it's less safe.

This is directly a reason for this this problem and this growing problem is directly because we're shutting down pipelines. I want to play for you mentioned the press secretary saying turn the cameras off. I want to play for everybody.

Here it is. I'm sorry, we're on a public area, so we are allowed as press. You guys, I would like you guys to turn your cameras off. Well, I'm on a camera. I would like your camera to be off and I'm happy to talk to you guys. Well, if you are the press secretary of the secretary of the Department of Transportation, don't you think you should be able to ask questions from the American public? Absolutely.

I would like to do it without the camera on. Can I ask why? I think that is a little bit aggressive.

Okay. I mean, this is this is this does sum up C.C. Washington's problem. I mean, it's completely incompetent.

There are people in charge. I mean, Rick just said how to solve the problem in three seconds. He said, let's open the pipeline so we don't have these hazardous materials.

These people are turning off the cameras instead of opening up pipelines. Rick should be the head of Department of Transportation. He gets it. He understands.

He has common sense. That's what he doesn't want. I can tell.

I see on the monitor. No, I do not want that. Thank you.

I will not serve. But Rick, I do I do want to move the topic to something that is another issue. You were the ambassador to Germany and for the United States for a number of years and represented our interests there. And there is a war in Eastern Europe that you and I've talked about a lot.

And it is is getting worse, not better. There doesn't seem to be any end in sight that the secretary of defense, Lord Austin, is not in communication with the minister of defense from the Chinese Communist Party, the government of China. And we have you talk about transparency. There's no transparency.

And I'm not asking for military secrets. I'd like our our secretary of defense to be talking to the minister of defense from China. That has stopped. So I'm seeing this like failures on the world stage domestically. But how about the situation with with us in China right now? It's a real problem.

It's very frightening. I think Joe Biden needs to pick up the phone and talk to Xi. We need to engage. We need to be having, you know, some sort of a diplomatic, peaceful solution.

Certainly China was would value something like that. But we've got, you know, look, this has been going on for a year. And there's been not a single peaceful resolution diplomatic solution put forward.

Think about that. All we are talking about is increasing military action. There's there's no one talking about a diplomatic solution with European foreign ministers, with, you know, people who are influential with Russia. There's a whole diplomatic strategy that can be done. It's not being done.

We're not even trying. And before anybody attacks me, let me just say I know this is difficult. I know it takes time and I'm not suggesting to have a weak solution, a weak agreement.

You've got to have a tough one. And that's going to be very difficult for Russia to swallow. But there are absolutely ways to solve this peacefully. And if they can't do it in the Biden administration, they need to call upon other Americans who know how to do peaceful solutions. I think they Joe Biden needs to ask Donald Trump for some help here.

You mentioned something on the transparency issue. I want to go back to the situation in East Palestine for a moment. And I'm going to ask our government affairs team and our Office of Government Oversight that does the FOIA requests. I mean, I'd like to see what the communication was between these agencies inside the agency on not going to East Palestine.

And, Rick, you've run these agents. I mean, there's got to be a lot of chatter on this, right? I mean, they knew this was going on. So it's not they made a concerted effort not to go.

They made a decision not to go there. There was a highly coordinated effort to not go by all of the senior officials. And you've got to wonder, was this a directive of Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser? Was this a directive of Susan Rice? Did Ron Klain say this as he was going out the door?

Did Joe Biden or Kamala Harris say, we're just not going to participate? But this was highly coordinated. And, you know, we need to have reporters in the briefing asking who told people not to go? Because clearly, you know, Mayor Pete didn't see the need to go.

This was a hazardous situation that is only going to continue to be a problem. And, you know, when I watched him today, he was so robotic. And they had the Department of Transportation camera, you know, doing every little move that he had. They were following him around to make sure that, you know, they could spin the fact that he was there. But they certainly weren't transparent to have the reporters questions answered.

Let me switch gears totally. We've had a series of cases, as you know, with pro-life students that were at the Net March for Life, which has been going on, as you know, for, you know, 40 years. This was the first one after Dobbs, Supreme Court decision there.

And obviously it was a very exciting time. These students had a T-shirt on that said pro-life generation. They go to the Smithsonian Museum, which is a federal entity, not agency, federal entity. And they go over to the National Archives Museum, which is a federal agency, so both federal government. And they're censored. And the only reason they're censored and threatened, I mean, one of the federal protective service personnel were washing their hands saying, you all are making my day.

These were 16, 17-year-old kids. But now, of course, they're blaming it on security and misunderstanding policies. But there is no way that simultaneously at the National Archives Museum and at the Smithsonian Museum, it happens independent of each other and it happens to just be coincidence.

You've run these agencies. There is no way. Well, miscommunication assumes that there was some sort of communication about what people wear and what they can, you know, where to get in. Then we need to know what that communication was where someone mixed it up because the fact is America is founded on freedom and the security guards should say, oh, people are free to wear whatever they want.

And so I don't buy this miscommunication thing. Look, Jay, this would just be a story that would be on loop and on the media and Newsmax and Fox and other stories. And we would just be outraged and it would continue. It would happen again if not for ACLJ, if not for the fact that we are going to hold people accountable and demand action on this, legal action. Yeah, we got a preliminary injunction against the National Archives Museum.

Our lawyers were on the phone today and will send me now and it appears we don't have it yet. Rick, we're in federal court on both of them, but it looks like we made up with an injunction on the on that, which is great. But you're right. No action, no result. Yeah, 100 percent correct.

And if not for ACLJ, another person is going to walk into a public space and be told you can't wear pro-life or a Second Amendment shirt or anything. I appreciate it. Rick, thanks. Thanks for your expertise on so many different issues today.

We had a lot to hit. And on the East Palestine, I'm not trying to overdo it. It's just I just don't understand the federal government response here.

And I appreciate your insight. Folks, support the work of the ACLJ at ACLJ.org. That's why we're in federal court in those two cases. More cases, of course, that we're involved in around the country. ACLJ.org. We appreciate your financial support for the American Center for Law and Justice.

All right. Next segment. Here we come. What is happening in Georgia? What is going on with this grand jury? We're going to talk about it. We're going to take your calls and they're starting to come in.

1-800-684-3110. Back with more. We're going to get into this President Trump and the grand jury. Here we go. Hey, welcome back.

All right. So yesterday we had a lot of people watching our broadcast. And when I say a lot of people, I mean hundreds of thousands. I'm not talking in addition to the listeners. Hundreds of thousands of people were watching between the Secular Brothers podcast and what we did on air.

A lot of people. And that was because a foreman of a grand jury involving in a criminal investigation of Donald Trump, a special grand jury, decides to go on a media tour and disclose the liberations of what's going on. Now the judge, by the way, is in the middle of the whole thing because he's saying, well, depends how you define deliberation. So now he's a witness. I mean, you cannot make this stuff up.

The judge is commenting about the performance of the grand jury for a person. OK. The media, though, has realized this is a disaster and especially the I hate Donald Trump media. They've all realized it.

But I'm going to play for you. Our team put together a montage of what this is. This is policy experts, lawyers from across the media spectrum said about this performance with this poor person yesterday. Joe, I'm just take it away. I don't even know. I'm so confused. Well, I mean, Willie, the judge says she don't talk.

Why? Yeah, I mean, that's some talking going on right there. She's undermined the integrity and independence of the grand jury. I think that she could destroy this case. I've never heard of a grand jury for a person speaking this way.

This person is talking on TV. I do not understand. She's clearly enjoying herself. Yeah. But I mean, is this responsible? She was the foreperson of this grand jury.

This is a horrible idea. And I guarantee you that prosecutors are wincing watching her go on this. I was wincing just watching her eagerness, like, you know, hinted stuff. I know that the judge gave them guidelines and said, like, don't name names.

But if you're like about 60 people, we heard Trump's name a lot. I mean, you know what's happening. The mere fact that you have the right to do something and she has a right to speak as a citizen. And even the grand jury rules in Georgia, you know, as long as she's not speaking about deliberations, she's allowed to. The mere fact that you have the right doesn't mean that you ought to do it. And you can create serious problems for a prosecution or a court by speaking publicly.

And I say when I say serious, but he says serious problems. I'll underscore that the folks. This is like this is unprecedented. I've never seen this in 42 years of practicing law. We got calls coming in on this and a variety, a variety of other topics as well. Joanne is on the phone from Ohio.

We're taking your calls at 800-684-3110. Joanne, go ahead. Well, what bothers me the most about her is she's so flippant about law and procedure and rules. Do you want a person like this sitting on a jury if you're on trial?

I've been on juries before. I mean, this is scary. These people could care less. Well, you're right, Joanne.

And I said this yesterday on the broadcast. Someone's liberty, their right to not be in jail, to be with their family and friends. Their livelihood is being put at risk by all this when you get, if someone gets indicted.

And to be this flippant and funny, and I want to find that bite where she says I'll be disappointed if the DA doesn't take action. We'll get that in a moment. But yes, it is a serious problem. And it's a serious problem that taints in my view the entire process.

Right. And, you know, these grand jurors, they take an oath and that oath does require secrecy. I understand that that's secrecy of the deliberations. But when you have the foreman running her mouth in such a flippant way and not caring, she clearly did not take her job seriously. It is a serious job to be on a grand jury. And she's not taking her oath seriously.

So I believe it does undermine the whole process. Yeah, I know the lawyers are looking at different avenues. There's been no legal action taken yet. But Georgia's got this very strange special grand jury proceeding that takes place and Andy O'Connell explained yesterday.

But I expect there will be movement. Interestingly, you wonder then how do you, because there's another grand jury investigating it right now. So this special grand jury, all they did was make a report and recommendations. And she was laughing about how many people, a lot of names, more than a dozen.

Yep, more than a dozen. So she was asked specifically about her reaction. This was on CNN. If the DA did not take action, take a listen. After everything that you've seen, what would your reaction be if the DA decides against bringing any charges after what you've seen? I will be sad if nothing happens.

Like that's about my only request there is for something to happen. I don't necessarily know what it is. I'm not the legal expert. I'm not the judge. I'm not the lawyers.

But I will be frustrated if nothing happens. This was too much. Too much information. Too much of my time. Too much of everyone's time. Too much. Too much of my time.

Too much of everybody's time. She's not the judge or the lawyer. She's the foreperson of the grand jury. She's in charge inside, procedurally in charge, of the grand jury proceeding. So, you know, and she's going to be upset if the DA decides not to charge somebody because she's lost her time.

She's worked on this. They're not an administrative agency. It's a grand jury. You know what a grand jury was supposed to be? Originally, a grand jury was supposed to be the protection between the prosecutor and the accused. A grand jury of your peers.

That's what it was supposed to be. Same thing like a jury. That is not the way it is in Georgia, apparently.

No, absolutely. She's clearly not the protector from the DA from the accused. And she clearly doesn't get the seriousness of her job and position. Just like you pointed out when she said, too much of my time was spent on this.

Well, I would hope you would take time to make sure the charges aren't being brought against an innocent person. I'm so sorry that you were put out and now you're just flippantly talking about somebody's lives. A lot of people's lives, actually.

She's laughing, haha, she's funny. When I say people's liberty at stake, folks, people could go to jail for five years. Lose a lot of their liberty and freedom. And they're making a mockery of the entire system. So now everybody's question is, which I understand is, so what does happen in a situation like this? And this is the great legal conundrum. And that is, do you, the judge has now weighed in. He's saying, well, I'm not going to say what she said was right or wrong.

I did instruct them that they should not discuss deliberations. Deliberations in Georgia means discussions that took place with the grand jury. When the DA wasn't there or witness wasn't in the room. Now she said she discussed the proceedings with her boyfriend. She said that what the witnesses were saying, she testified to that. She did pictures of them. It reeks of impropriety.

And I'll tell you what it reminds me of. It reminds me of an attorney general of the United States who knows that there's an issue with the current President of the United States and classified documents. And those classified documents may not be where they're supposed to be. They might be in his garage. They might be in his house. They might be in his office.

They may be in some lawyer's office, but they're not where they're supposed to be at the National Archives. But we have another problem with the former President who also has documents that should be at the National Archives. So what I'm going to do is execute a search warrant on the former President knowing the current President has the same issue. And then of course it explodes dramatically because after the execution of the search warrant, what happens? Well, then what happens is they find that the current President's got locations all over. I mean Washington, D.C., his home in Delaware, his office in Delaware, his garage in Delaware, lawyers in Boston, the University of Delaware. And then Vice President Pence, by the way, he's got documents too. The FBI conducts a search of all these locations. Lack of leadership is letting the cart out of the barn, letting the toothpaste out of the tube, not knowing where it's going to splat.

And this is the entire leadership problem that you have with this entire administration. So again, folks, when you stand with the ACLJ, we're on top of every one of these issues. Get more information by going to ACLJ.org, our website. We encourage you to go there. When you're there, you can sign up for email alerts. Great way to stay educated. You get a daily email, you know what's going on. It takes us a minute or two to read it and you're going to know what's going on on major issues. Then we encourage you also to support the work of the ACLJ.

You can do that at ACLJ.org as well and also at ACLJ Action. Great way to stay engaged there. I can't even imagine what tomorrow's going to bring, but tomorrow we will be here and we'll see you then.