How Do We Move Forward? Nightmare in Nashville

Today on Sekulow, how do we move forward after a nightmare in Nashville? 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, Jordan Sekulow. Good morning, welcome to Sekulow. As many of you know who listen to this broadcast, who watch the broadcast, if it's on Rumble, YouTube or Facebook, you know that we are a national base for our broadcast.

The ACLJ has offices all around the country and the world. We're traveling all the time. I was on a plane yesterday and if you watched our podcast, the Sekulow Brothers, I was at the airport turning around. Coming right back because my daughter's school is next to Covenant where the shooting occurred and literally about a mile and a half from my house, I drove by it this morning, the school on my way into the office. So you can imagine what we're all going through here with our children, the school situation there and taking this time to one, gather all the facts, gather all the information, but also decide how to move forward. What you feel like immediately doing is saying, especially in private school situations, is going to all the parents saying, let's throw in a few hundred extra bucks. We have great security officers in all of our kids' schools, but let's give them some assistance. Let's give them some more security officers. And maybe it's overdoing it, but that's okay for a couple hundred dollars extra a year.

We pay to go to these schools and we're blessed to be able to do that. But we can throw in a little bit more money and maybe that's a deterrence. It certainly was from one location we know for the shooter that was checked out that there was too much security there and they decided not to hit that target. So that does have an impact, even with people who are psychotic and are willing to, I guess they call it suicide by police ultimately. In these instances, they know they're going to die. Instagram messaged a friend, I'm going to die today, like 15 minutes before the event. So it's a horrible tragedy.

What I want to do first today is just read out the names and the ages of those who were killed and ask you to pray. Because we've been mocked. We get mocked for praying. It's disgusting.

But it's the first thing I see online. Once I put out a tweet about it, mostly I got hate tweets back. These people didn't necessarily have kids in school right next door to this school. A lot of them are not even real people.

But hate tweets back, just asking for prayer. The victims who have been identified, Haley Scruggs, nine years old. She's the daughter of Chad Scruggs, who's the lead pastor at Covenant Presbyterian Church. Evelyn Deakhouse, also nine years old. William Kinney, nine years old. And then Catherine Koontz, who was 60, who was the headmaster at the school. Cynthia Peake, 61, who was a substitute teacher. We're friends with a teacher who, again, her daughter is one of her good friends and they're just in shock. As a substitute, you think you're a substitute in this nice, small, private Christian school, you don't have to worry about something like this. And of course, this is always not so unfortunate, Mike Hill, 61, a custodian of the school. Someone taking care of that school for the kids, keeping it clean, keeping the building in shape.

Has lost his life. Those people did not return home. Those kids did not go home last night.

Our kids are around that age or a little bit older, a little bit younger. I know my daughter this morning, this is because of Amazon Alexa, you know, had the yellow band around it. She usually asks it because that usually means weather. And it said, Nashville wakes up from a nightmare.

She walks down the hall. I didn't hear it. My wife didn't hear it. We're not keeping the news on right now when the kids are out because her school is closed today.

And because of this incident and how close it was to her school. And she said, Dad, what nightmare happened? And we talked about the weather. I redirected to that weather in Mississippi because we had that weather here, too. I said, you know, there's a lot of bad weather.

It didn't affect our street, our area. But, you know, this is a very tough time. I want to hear from people, too. Yeah, for sure. Give us a call. I did want to reassure some people who didn't maybe see yesterday's shows. People are asking simply about our children.

I want to say thank you for that. Thankfully, our children and our staff, we're not part of most of our staff. We have some indirect connections, but our staff's children are safe. We'd love to hear from you and get your thoughts on this as we move forward.

1-800-684-3110. That was the big question we posed in the title. And I think it's the question we have. We don't necessarily have the answer yet, which is how do we move forward from this as not just Nashville as a community? How do we move forward with this as a country when we when this is becoming very regular, when we're seeing this all the time? So my son, who did I did have to tell our kids they did go back to school and he said, how come this feels like this is in the news constantly? It feels like now it's at our front door. But before it was constantly happening, how do we move forward?

1-800-684-3110. We'd like to hear from you today. We'll be right back. Here in Tennessee, we're not afraid to say that we pray.

We don't care if you mock us online. We actually believe in the power of prayer. People say, where's your God?

Where's Jesus? Why did he save these kids? They have no understanding of scripture.

They have no understanding of our faith or what we believe. And by the way, those kids are little kids. That's just developing. And they talk about, oh, well, there's been political decisions made in your state that caused this. No political decision is a justification to kill nine-year-old kids or 60-year-old teachers. None. None. Zero.

So that's not a good excuse, liberals. But you can mock us all you want about prayer. The head of the TBI, which is Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, said this very early on as one of the first press conferences after the shooting, once things were, the lockdown was over.

Take a listen by 20. Again, I want to echo what Chief has said in reference to the great support and the great teamwork that is being taken place here, as well as sending our heartfelt prayers to the families, to this community of these victims. I know there will be people who want to criticize us for prayers, but that's the way we do that in the South, right? We believe in prayer and we believe in the power of prayer.

So our prayers go out to these families. Our churches and our community. This is our community. This is where we live. This school is about them. I had friends who were actually walking to get their kids from school because my daughter's school is right next to it. And they knew they couldn't get there by car.

So that's how close we are. I have to drive by at everyday work. Drove by this morning. And I will say that the churches were packed last night.

Just people quietly in prayer. Because it's a, again, some cities have been through this. Our city has not.

Our community has not. This is private schools, Christian schools. Someone wrote in the chat, they could have been targeted because they were Christian. They were definitely targeted. This was a targeted hate crime at a Christian school. Yeah, I think that's become more and more clear and I don't even think there's really argument against it right now. They haven't released the details of what they found. They said they manifesto.

But they've kind of said enough. Remember, in the past we've seen these mass shootings. A lot of times, this is like some former student. That was a 28-year-old, really former. They didn't have interactions with those 9-year-olds. They weren't bullied by a 9-year-old. Whatever happened to them in school when they were 20 years ago, those 9-year-olds had nothing to do with it. Probably most of those 6-year-olds did either. It was very mentally deranged and a really sad situation.

Even if you get the manifesto and have the answers, which I'm sure we will, I have some of the answers of why. Like you said, it doesn't really make it any better. I will have to say, I watched, and part of me wishes I hadn't. I'm glad I did. They put out the footage. First, last night, the security cam footage, which was one of the more disturbing things I've ever seen, which just showed this individual walking through, busting out the doors, walking through the halls. That was last night when that came out. It was hard to sleep watching that. This morning, they released the body cam footage from the police.

As horrible as it is, it even has to happen. It did give me a lot of peace knowing that our law enforcement here locally handled this so quickly. As soon as they were there, there was no waiting. There was none of the stuff we've heard about. They went in and they killed the shooter within minutes. I do have to say that at least, I don't want to say it gave me any peace, but it did feel like there are people in law enforcement who are still doing great jobs, who are out there and are working in their communities.

We felt that way the last time. They put out that footage months later. It reopened it.

What I'm happy with Tennessee is that they said, you decide if you want to watch it or not, but we're putting this all out within 24 hours so we can be as transparent as possible. I think you're going to see that manifesto and that information come out sooner than later. As you said, there's not a case here.

The shooter is dead. Hopefully, that information at least gives us a little bit more idea of what the motive is. Hopefully, that helps other schools with their protection. That's going to be the most important part. The school is very vulnerable.

Yes. These are private schools. Those are going to be discussions with parents. We'll have them at our school and many schools across Nashville and across the country.

It's very personal for us because this is our hometown. This idea too, this is why people say they backed the blue. These moments. They go in immediately, know that they're going to be facing someone who is killing with weapons and don't even think twice. These were young cops if you look at them. They knew how to handle their situation. They were calm. They handled it really professionally. Talking about a horrific scene, but they ended it. I think one of the cops had been on the force maybe four years and went another six or eight years.

Not very long to take these drastic things. These are the ones who fired the shots. These were young cops who went in there and did the best job we could hope for. They're heroes.

They could have gotten there faster. These were not security guards at the school. The security school we have to start talking about and have that more of a discussion because there's been legislation put up and then that gets voted down by the Democrats and there's gun legislation going on and then there's regulation but then that's going to get voted down by the Republicans. Somewhere the security of the school has got to take importance. I think we need excessive security. I know that sounds strange to say that word before, but so much security that even the most arranged person thinks twice. If you wanted to be in an accredited school, maybe that's the rule.

If you want to be in an accredited school, this is the cost of doing business. How much security do you have? You have to still protect your children.

That has to be number one. I don't want to place blame on anyone. No one thought in this community that this would happen, but that's true in most of the ones that you see. Our security officer, what he did first was take his truck and block the entrance to our school because the media was starting to show up, the police were starting to show up, random people were starting to show up. Because you could park in our school and walk to this school.

But he needed some backup. Now there's going to be a conversation there. He did a great job, but it would be nice if there was one or two more of him for the kids there. My daughter goes to basically the same school, K through 6, so young kids, no real teenagers. Her's a little bit bigger, but again, across the street, these are neighbor schools. And yeah, we have to have those difficult conversations with our kids. Also, it's going to be difficult for me. I get very emotional because I usually have the one that drops off in the morning because then I head to work from there. As I said, that's my route to the office. Dropping her off until today was canceled. Tomorrow, that's not going to be an easy thing.

No, it wasn't for me this morning. It was definitely a conversation. You saw very emotional teachers. Again, kids go to different schools, but you're talking about a couple miles. They're all kind of together. And you saw a lot of teachers trying to put on a brave face because a lot of them do the carpool line. And then a few that just couldn't, and you can't blame them for that. You can't blame them for the fact that they're emotional getting kids out of the car and getting them into the school and trying to get back to some kind of normal day and normal routine.

We've talked about this for Nashville a lot, and I still want to hear from you, by the way. The left is demonizing Christian schools. First of all, some of these Christian schools, they're Christian, but they're not even necessarily the most politically charged. Just having that in your title now makes you a target because the left has used this rhetoric that we are somehow hate-filled fascists who want to take away all of their rights and take away freedom and liberty. And when you say that to someone who is mentally deranged, they take action.

Eventually this stuff is going to happen. I think there is a referendum. It's different than the school shootings that we grew up with in the Taliban years where it was bullied on campus. Well, I think that difference, those were students, too. I mean, you were talking about this is an adult woman.

This is a 28-year-old. It's because of politics. Yeah, and likely, likely that's the case. I think it's 100% because there's a manifesto. I think that's right. I think it's 100%.

Yeah, it's 100%. This happened because it had a connection there, and it's a Christian school. If that's the case, the demonization, like you said, of the Christian community has become to the point where this is the risk. So when they talk about it, when you hear all the things on the news that are pushing that rhetoric, remember what they're doing.

They're encouraging people who are ready to commit horrendous crimes. And look, I'm not going to say by any emotional way that it goes the other way, but there is a point in this country where you do have to talk about how we're going to talk to each other, how we are going to move forward. How do you move forward with, when everything is so politicized, how do you move forward with any kind of basic security at the schools? How does that now break beyond politics? Because it won't, because it'll get there, and the Democrats will say, well, we just need more gun control. And the conservatives say, well, we need more security, and then nothing will happen.

So the question is, how do we do that? And that's just the political side of it. But when it comes to this vitriolic hate that comes from, and I will say from both. The police didn't use the right pronoun, the police didn't use the right, the police commissioner was using, calling this shooter a she, and they identify as a he, and the media attacked on that. Like, that's what mattered at that moment. That didn't matter. This is an evil person.

I don't care what they want to go by, they should go by evil, horrendous, and hopefully you know exactly where they are, where they woke up. You're not offending a child murderer. Yes.

But the media did. There's a line. There's a line. Don't push people the other way. We're there on a lot of these, and we talked about it yesterday, too. We need to start making some real decisions on how we move forward as a country.

And again, I want you to answer that question. Some of you have called in, we're going to get as many as we can. 1-800-684-3110. We'll take some of those calls in the next segment. So 1-800-684-3110, we ask you to be polite and kind to our phone screeners, and make sure you get your statements out so we can get as many of you on the air as quick as possible.

1-800-684-3110. And for those who watch on Rumble, thank you. And for those who watch on social media, thank you. But we are on terrestrial radio. We've got to keep language, you know, FCC compliant. So we'll be right back. I want to say, if you're waiting on hold right now, stay on hold. A lot of people are calling in right now, or even if it's just ringing and you're calling and you're hearing an endless ring, give people, our phone screeners, a second, because there are a lot of you calling in, because we did pose that question of how do we move forward. And I think that is something that we're all going to be sort of wrestling with, you know, in the fallout of this horrible tragedy here in Nashville. And the fallout of, honestly, the way society feels like it's moving in general. I said yesterday, there's a cultural and spiritual rot happening. And how do we turn the tide?

I had some friends saying, we don't. This is it. It's over. There's no way back. Well, if that's true, and we have no sliver of hope, then what's the point of any of this? We have to find that sliver of hope. Yeah, we have to find that. We have to find that sliver of hope. Or there's no need for any of this conversation to even happen or for us to be continuing this. And I won't believe that we're there, but we have to have some sort of faith and some sort of hope that things can get better. The question is, how do we get there? And I think that that is a big discussion that I did.

I don't know if we all have the answers for yet, but at least we can start making some plans and throwing around some ideas. It's fair to say now that as Christians, we are a target for violence yet again. And I'm not sure we have it at this level where, again, these other school shootings were more directed towards public schools.

There's issues with the student body and really deranged students who either thought they were being bullied. Again, when you start criticizing police over what they called a she or he and this or that, it's just a murder of kids who hopefully face their final judgment the moment they were killed by police. But we have to, I think, realize that.

That's step one. We are a target for violence now, and our kids end up being a target, and they don't vote on any of these issues. They don't get to vote in the state legislature. They don't get to decide what issues we're gauging, if it's an issue on transgender, if it's an issue on banning drag shows. Yeah, or on the other side, on guns and regulations. The kids have no vote on that. The kids are going to the school that you tell them to.

I mean, that's what it is. At least now you have some states are opening up to the school choice idea, and that stuff starts happening. Florida, I know, passed it yesterday. But let's go take a call. Let's go to Jeff, who's calling in North Carolina on Line 3.

Jeff, you're on the air. Hey, guys, thanks for taking my call. I just wanted to say that I'm really heartbroken over what took place in Nashville, but I wanted to say that this country has to turn back to God. We've walked so far away from God that we are really reaping what we have sowed from all the years of turning our back on God. And the little prayer right now, we need prayer right now. This country needs to be praying and turning back to God right now.

Jeff, I want to say thank you for calling, and I think a lot of people feel that way. In fact, even the We Should Play That Club Again, the TBI director yesterday. They knew we would be mocked for saying to pray. I knew we were mocked immediately when we put out a message out.

Of course. We did a whole show yesterday. I'm pretty sure that was... Now, however, I'll say this. It was a show about what was going on and, again, about that sort of same movement. It was one of our biggest shows we've ever done because people are ready to have this discussion. They're ready to talk about where faith can kind of come back into society, and it has to.

Let's hear from the TBI director, David Roush, by 20. Again, I want to echo what Chief has said in reference to the great support and the great teamwork that has been taking place here. As well as sending our heartfelt prayers to the families, to this community of these victims. Now, I know there will be people who want to criticize us for prayers, but that's the way we do that in the South, right? We believe in prayer, and we believe in the power of prayer.

So our prayers go out to these families. I mean, that's it right there. But, see, the fact that he even has to say that in the United States of America. I'm going to be mocked. I'm going to apologize, essentially, for this before I say it. Because you're all going to mock me and play this on TV and say, what did your prayers do for this kism? What did your prayers, you know, did your prayers save you?

Where's your God? People have no understanding of the theology that we believe or the faith that we have. But I do say this, too, I see people talking about Christian persecution around the world. That's different, too, because that's usually based off another religion targeting.

That we've seen historically. A lot of times a government who is hostile. What it's not is politics. Yeah, it's usually a government that is institutionally opposed. Because of their religion.

Because of their religion. But now what we're saying is a government that is encouraging speech that is opposed. So it's not necessarily institutionally opposed to religion.

I think Joe Biden would claim his Catholicism. This is not Islamic terrorism. This is political terrorism. But it's similar rhetoric and similar rhetoric for people who are unwell create similar results on both sides here and on all sides, on just people. When you have rhetoric that takes human beings and says that person is the devil.

Especially when it just comes to how they believe or their their freedom of speech or what they have to say. You're going to start having issues where people who are already unwell, who are already on the edge, who are spending all day probably on social media being inundated with chaos. This is going to start happening. It's going to happen more and more. It could have come closer to us, but it's going to happen in your community as well.

Unless we do something about it and we start really, really actively pursuing what a future of this country looks like and the way that we talk to each other and the way that our government works and the way society handles these situations. And I think we all in the last 24 hours, at least everyone in this office, has had to rethink a lot of how we feel. Joe Biden was disgusting. Yeah.

Doesn't help. Joe Biden yesterday, we were watching live. I almost threw up. Joe Biden.

I was almost already throwing up already. So I believe, I forgot who was on. Fox, Mid-Days. He's going to make a statement. They say, hey, Joe Biden's about to come on. He's about to, we've been told he's going to address the Tennessee shooting, national shooting right off the bat. And this is how he starts it. And this is how he starts.

This is Bite 19. My name is Joe Biden. I'm Dr. Joe Biden's husband. NIH and his ice cream, chocolate chip. I came down because I heard there was chocolate chip ice cream.

By the way, I have a whole refrigerator full upstairs. I think I'm kidding. So that was the first thought. This is what I thought about.

Those little kids are never going to have ice cream again. Yeah. You know, think about that.

This jerk President who has got to live his whole life. That's the first thing he thought. That's why he came downstairs.

He came downstairs because he heard there was freaking ice cream. This is the discussion we had was, well, because Fox started freaking out. They cut back and said, we were told that he was going to say this.

We are sorry that we put this up and we'll get back to you. Then we had a discussion internally, me and Will and the producers and said, maybe, I mean, this had just happened over the course of minutes. Maybe somehow he has not been briefed. Not true. And then immediately he went to his podium and then made this statement.

So look, we'll be fair. Here's what he said. But remember what it presented that what came before that was, was him talking down there was because they had chocolate chip ice cream. Not because three kids and three adults had just been murdered by a political extremist shooter and another school shooting had occurred.

No, no, no. It's because he wanted his chocolate chip ice cream. Shame on him. This is when people say he's too old to be President and doesn't know what he's doing. His people are horrendous at the White House and so is he.

And even the Democrats, I think, will probably get rid of him for the next election cycle. But he did. He tried. This is why it was so weird. Fox wasn't wrong. He did address it right away by 21. I just want to speak very briefly about the school shooting in Nashville, Tennessee.

You know, Ben and I have been doing this our whole careers, it seems, and it's just it's sick. You know, we're still gathering the facts of what happened and why. And we do know that as of now, there are a number of people who did not make it, including children. It's heartbreaking.

A family's worst nightmare. And I want to commend the police who responded incredibly swiftly within minutes and the danger. We're monitoring the situation really closely, Ben, as you know, and we have to do more to stop gun violence.

That was a statement. We have 25 seconds left. We got another half hour coming up. So join us. We'll be right back. Keeping you informed and engaged now more than ever. This is Sekulow.

And now your host, Jordan Sekulow. I think what we have to prepare for is because the rhetoric being used against us. Oftentimes they're talking about conservative rhetoric in the media.

They don't talk about the leftist rhetoric. The leftist rhetoric has gotten so high that now Christian schools are being targeted for political violence. And three little kids are dead.

And we played that Joe Biden fight. He went downstairs not to talk about the shooting, but because they had some ice cream. And those kids won't have ice cream again.

And we pray that they're all in heaven and pray for their families. Just think about the reality of how sick the President of the United States is. Because his rhetoric has gone, hey, if it was at a Christian school, they're probably right wing.

So I can still make jokes. And people were shocked that he said that. Actually pulled away and said maybe they just weren't prepped and this was a different event. We got the wrong info that he was going to address it then. Yeah, we all kind of paid it.

We all kind of thought that. He needs to go. We've got to have leaders that can actually, I don't care what side of political are you talking about, but they can actually communicate to the American people.

Because at his point in his life, he no longer can. And his staff's horrendous. We know that the whole time. Kamala can't get even citizens out, so I don't want her addressing it. Some of our local politicians have been great.

Yeah, I said that last night. Where are our leaders? Where are our Unites?

They don't exist. Yeah, you're right. Some of our local leaders, by the way, at some of the highest levels have been silent for a day as their state goes through this. Which is also the capital.

Which is also the capital. So if you're listening or you're one of the people on the staff of those people listening, which I know some of you are, because some of you used to work here, I would say, can we please have that person make some kind of statement to reassure us? We're talking about the governor of our state. As long as we're on the air, things could have changed since then. 24 hours later, the statement was right before we went on air saying we're monitoring the situation. That was yesterday.

That was yesterday. That was the last thing until, I'm not sure if anything's happened in the last hour. Nothing. It said nothing.

It hasn't shown anywhere. These are people who voted for him. Yeah, most of the people who voted for him. And it's really sad. I mean, it broke my heart to see that our own state didn't do this. And look, this again becomes more real and realist.

I'm not going to reveal schools or anything like this, but he's got an email from our producer, a school that his son attends and a school that my son used to attend was directly involved in this. And again, it can't get closer. It can't get closer to home at this point without being actually at our kids' schools. It wasn't a 17-year-old angry senior in high school.

Oh yeah, for sure. It's a different kind of mass shooting. Yeah, because people were calling yesterday going, teenagers with video games, those kind of conversations. This is a 28-year-old political activist who decided, I'm suicidal, but I'm going to take out some kids before I go. So I'll let the police kill me because I don't have the guts to kill myself. I'm going to my former school because it probably knows their way around.

Yeah, they had that sketch, yeah. They don't have the guts to kill themselves. So they take out their phony anger. Listen, I want to know what they're being pumped full of, what medication.

They have said that she was in a transition process. I would like to know what the medications were. It opens up so many questions. We keep talking about the antidepressants.

What about the testosterone? What about the other things? I said, this entire situation. Should open up real conversations. Real conversations about everything. This has hit the spectrum of every issue on both sides here. Non-trans, politics, Christianity, political violence.

I said, this is a time for all of us to rethink almost everything that we believe to go in terms of politics. And you hope on the left they are too. I hope so.

Very nice crew with Joe Biden. We have a lot of callers coming in. We only got a minute left. Stay on hold, even the ones that don't care for our rhetoric today. Stay on hold. We're going to get to you coming up in the next segment. Again, give us a call at 1-800-684-3110.

That's 1-800-684-3110. We had other topics we're going to hit today. I have a feeling this is probably where the show lands. Maybe we'll go and move on to some others. We have Mike Pompeo coming up in the last segment. So we'll see how that goes. He made a statement before our own leader, so I appreciate him right now. Give us a call.

1-800-684-3110. As we create, try to start. What this roadmap, what this blueprint is. If you're watching on Rumbletoons, share this around. Because I think you're not going to get closer to home and commentary. We live here. Our kids go to these schools right there.

We know people have been affected by it. And we're just trying to get through a broadcast about breaking down. That was my biggest thing. How do I not break down? I've been breaking down all morning. I'm trying not to do that for y'all.

Just so that we can have these conversations started. And not just move on in two weeks and not ignore it. Because we're not going to be doing that here. We're a resilient city, but we have to keep vigilant. We're resilient people. And we're Christians. We're resilient.

The phone is 1-800-684-3110. The discussion also is how do we move forward in these discussions in a serious way. And again, we have to now be in a reality situation. And we're not defeatists here. But our being a Christian and a conservative now is putting a target on yourself. But it's not just us. And it always has. We're big boys. We're adults.

And we also have a lot of security in our office because of that. Because it's always been that. But it's also now putting a target on your kid who has no say in your politics. And really if we have to start worrying about what we believe is right or wrong because our kids might get killed.

Because we fight for a country we believe in. That's a sad country to live in. So we can't live in that kind of country. We can't accept that as the norm.

America is no different than a lot of the places in the world that you don't want to live. And sadly, I mean we were all reeling from this. But sadly I was getting a lot of that from my friends.

That was a lot of the statements they were making. We're too far gone. There's nothing we can do now.

Because you do look at this moment and go... Again, like you've said, we've said a million times. Unless this was at our children's schools it could not have been closer. And I mean that in distance. This is the first time my kids have ever been under a real lockdown for violence. For SORBS they've done it. But I mean they were in for like a couple of hours. Yeah and they were very clear about...

They sent us pictures. Again, I tell you my daughter does not know. Obviously by the time she had left school the police presence that you could visually see was not so obvious. It's something horrendous to happen. But it's, you know, Amazon Alexa is talking about nightmares in Nashville. That's her hometown.

We'll go to the phones though. Katie in Indiana online one. Hey Katie.

Yes, hi. Hey, I've been listening to you guys for a long time and I'm just so sorry that you all as a community are having to go through all of this. I mean it's just tragic and kids being killed. That should be the last place that when we send our kids to school that we have to worry about them if they're going to come home or not.

And it hurts me on a deep level because I live in a community where we went through one a few years ago. And it was thankfully from a very brave teacher who took down our guns and it could have been so much worse, you know, was at a middle school here. But I think, you know, going when I was listening to all even then we implemented a lot of things in our county of even my son can recite exactly what the acronym is that they use to be on the lookout like for a potential shooter in that situation, the schools are completely. You have to be buzzed in, and there is a police presence in our schools. The police have pretty much. They're a part of the school so the kids actually feel more safe with the police. And, you know, for me to drive up to their schools and see that there is a police vehicle there. It even gives me, you know, more comfort and relief of knowing.

And I know I think with a lot of the school resource officers, a lot of them are ex-military, ex- or even undercover police. We appreciate all of your statements. I'm glad your community has done that. Yes, thank you so much and we have a lot to move forward.

We did want to quickly break in because we have a special guest who just called in. He's a great friend of ours and this is his hometown too and his kids go to these schools too and Senator Bill Hagerty, U.S. Senator Bill Hagerty is joining us now. And Senator Hagerty, we're all trying to talk through this moment. I was on a flight yesterday. I turned around. I landed and got back on another flight to come home because this happened across the street from my daughter's school.

We've wanted to hear from leaders like you and let our listeners hear from leaders like you about who are involved in the community, involved in these schools, and just let you speak to our audience. It's absolutely heartbreaking, Jordan, what's transpired and as you know, more facts are coming out every hour as this transpires. But what we do know is this, an extraordinarily sick individual committed an unthinkable act of evil. And the result of that has been absolutely tragic with the deaths of three children and three adults. We're mourning together. We're mourning for the loss of the victims. We're mourning for their families. We're mourning for the Covenant Church community. We're mourning for the entire Nashville community and everybody that's touched by this. It's absolutely unthinkable that something like this could happen, but it did.

I also want to say this. The Nashville Police Department did an exceptional job. They stepped up to the challenge within 14 minutes. They were on the scene. I've seen the footage. You perhaps have seen the footage as well from their body cameras.

They walked into fire and they were being fired upon and they shut the situation down and prevented further damage and further malaise from taking place. And I've spoken to the police chief. I've spoken to the mayor to thank them and to congratulate them. I'm going to have Merrick Garland in front of me shortly, the Attorney General, to make certain that every federal resource possible from the Department of Justice is being put to bear on what has transpired right there in Nashville, Tennessee at the Covenant School. Well, Senator Hagerty, the amazing timing that you've got the Attorney General of the United States in front of you to make sure that they pledge that commitment. Because we do know that this is, you know, there's similarities with all these shootings, but in this unique shooting it feels like with a manifesto and what we're hearing and learning more and more that this was politically targeting Christian kids and Christian students in a Christian school. I'm going to ask for transparency, Jordan, because as I said at the outset, it's extraordinarily complex. I've heard about a manifesto.

I don't know what the content of that manifesto is. I'm not going to jump to conclusions yet, but I want to make certain that this is transparent, that it doesn't get buried the way things often do, and that the public knows exactly what transpired so we can understand it and do everything that we can to make certain that people with this sort of mental disposition aren't in the position to do something like this again. US Senator Bill Hagerty, our Senator here in Tennessee and in Nashville, one of our residents also, thank you so much for joining. Go hold Merrick Garland account for this and make sure you get the resource we need. Thank you, Senator Hagerty. We really appreciate it and appreciate your team for understanding that this audience needs to hear it and for reaching out and thankfully we've had a relationship. His team is all in this community. They are my friends and neighbors.

He's been in the studio before and I'm very thankful to have him representing our area, so thanks to Billy. Hey, we've got a couple of minutes left. If you have a quick call, you can call in or have a comment.

Maybe we can get to you. Jordan, I think that... You heard that right there. I mean, that's what a US Senator can do. He's not the Governor, but he's got Merrick Garland in front of him. Just so happens today because, and he can make sure that, again, if this is that political targeting, because they talk about that a lot, Department of Justice, especially this Department of Justice, you know, the target of abortion clinics and things like that, but what they didn't talk about was the targeting of pro-life pregnancy centers and the fire bombs.

Yeah, we went through all of that. A Senator can get those federal accounts and say, you know what, if this does turn out to be totally motivated by politics and an attack on religion and faith, the federal government has a role there because we have a First Amendment that protects you there. And listen, I don't put a ton of faith in what this administration is going to do, the laughing ice cream administration, but they can't ignore it. We can't allow them to ignore it.

And I think that's why, again, that's why we do this broadcast. And I think, again, that's a toot on our own horn, but Senator Hagerty knew he had like two minutes to talk to our audience about this because this is his community. I mean, this is where his kids grew up.

They still are going to schools around here. This is where he lives when he's not in Washington. This is where his family is. And so it's tragic. Work continues, though.

His work continues. Yeah. I mean, sadly, you have people, I don't have a ton of confidence in Merrick Garland. I don't have a ton of confidence in the current administration. You're not going to be quiet about it. Exactly. But you're going to try to blame... These two have people who are... They're going to try to blame us.

Oh, absolutely. They're going to try to blame us for what this psycho did. We're not going to allow that because there's more of us than there are these loudmouth people who think that this person was somehow justified in taking this kind of action against little kids. Shame on you. If you tweeted those kind of things and you're tweeting it to us right now, you're a sick person, too. You need to rethink who you are.

Maybe gut check yourself. Because nothing, no politics, no ban on someone dressing up like a woman and dancing in a library or taking medication justifies killing a kid who had nothing to do with that. That kid had nothing to do with that, those kids. We don't even know what their politics would have been one day. They'll never get that chance. They'll never have a chance to let their voice be heard about issues. They will get to grow up and have positions. So that whole line of attack, how quick that started, Logan, made me more angry. Unfortunately, it makes you more partisan and makes you want to come out with rhetoric that's even more extreme because it does make you just physically ill that you are so politically motivated that you don't even care about your fellow American children.

I mean, I couldn't agree with you more. I think that's something that we're all going to have to deal with coming up. And coming up in the next segment, we do have Mike Pompeo joining us, someone who has made some statements about this yesterday, and certainly will have a lot to share.

So we're going to have him coming up. Appreciate everyone who called in. Thank you, Senator Hagerty. Thank you to Senator Hagerty for talking to our audience, talking to us personally. It means a lot.

It really does. And that's because of people like you who help support us here at the ACLJ because we have these amazing connections to some of the top leaders in the country, and we couldn't do that without you. So thank you. I want to say thank you to all of our listeners.

We do have a full another segment coming up. Don't go away yet. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, former Secretary of State, joining us right in just a moment. Welcome back to Sekulow.

It was great to be joined by Senator Hagerty, just to let him address because this is his hometown and our hometown, and he's fighting for us in Washington, D.C. And we're joined now by our senior council for global affairs, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and Secretary Pompeo, you also spoke out yesterday. You called for, as you and your wife had called for, prayer is what unfortunately we're starting to see and learn more about this. Mike, both of our kids, both Logan and our kids go to schools within a mile of this school.

One share is a parking lot. Our kids were in lockdown. This is the first time they've ever been in lockdown since we've been parents for a shooting drill, not weather related. And your first message was, of course, to call for prayer. And unfortunately, what's kind of upsetting to me, Secretary, is how many people immediately mock us when we call for prayer?

Hey, Jordan, I've seen that, too. I'm convinced that prayer is the answer to so many things, including trying to help the families of the three kids who were killed and three adults and all the friends of the community at that school as well. We all should pray for them. And the same way that people prayed when we had the football player who was injured, the same way that we saw the newscaster pray when the tornado went through Mississippi, I think we should all understand that prayer matters and that it is he who can help heal us. But then we've got to do more. Right. There are many things that can be done to make schools safer.

Lots of good ideas. And we know that we've got to deliver that we've got to deliver a place where your kids there in Nashville and our kids all across the country can know that when they go off to school, they are safe. And having an officer there, having security there in a way that respects the risk that's associated with those people being in a very open space seems to make a lot of sense to me and will reduce the frequency with which these folks who clearly have mental challenges do what happened yesterday in Nashville. Secretary Pompeo, I did want to address another tweet you put out. It was actually our discussion yesterday as we went on the air. The reports me and my wife called me five minutes before we went on the air to tell me about the shooting that had occurred and it was still active at that moment. But right before we went on the air, our discussion point and what became the topic, because I do think these are very intermingled, is a poll that came out and I saw you tweeted about it where you put this is more dangerous than any external threat.

We can handle China, but we need serious leadership to fix this loss of the values that make America great. And that was the sharp decline since 1998. So putting it at a, you know, in this kind of structure from 70 percent to 38 percent of people who felt that patriotism was important in religion from 32 to from 62 to 39.

So pretty much even. And there was obviously some other other concerning facts in that as well. But those are the two we kind of honed in our audience did. I wanted to get your thoughts on this.

I understand why you're saying it. I think everyone maybe probably agrees with you on that, that this is going beyond political. This is becoming how we're educating people. There's a lot happening from this poll. It ties greatly into what happened yesterday here in Nashville.

Yes, this is remotely political. That survey was a Wall Street Journal opinion research center poll that they've been conducting for years and never have they seen the data in this way. It concerns me enormously. If we don't teach the next generation of kids about American greatness, about why it is this most exceptional nation, the finest in the history of civilization is worthy and decent and good and protects individuals and humankind in ways that no other civilization, no other country ever has.

You'll see that. You'll see a decline in patriotism. You'll see America become more secular. We need both faith and committed American patriots to be leading in our schools, teaching our kids this in our schools. And when we get that wrong, when we when we walk away from our Judeo-Christian founding in the United States of America, you will see increased instability, increased conflict, and you'll see more incidents like what happened yesterday as well.

The violence levels will increase all across the country, too. We have to get this back with leaders at every level who are prepared to talk about why it is that our institutions must be decent and noble and honorable. I mean, because our external enemies, they look at these moments in America. They watch very close these moments in America where whether you tie the economy, the economic troubles we're having, the political divisions, and then this this crisis we've had with school shootings. And it it weakens us externally. But but we have to get our own house in order before we can start figuring out that America isn't living up to America right now. Yeah. I mean, that's how I feel, Secretary Pompeo. Yeah, right. We know we can do it, but we've got to have leadership to help us get there. We can't all do it on our own. We've got to have leaders like you, people that can speak nationally for us to help us find that path.

Jordan, you nailed it. I haven't seen anything, but it won't be very long before the Chinese foreign ministry is talking about shooting in Nashville as evidence of American decline. They will they will seize on this. They will they will facilitate this. They will propagandize about this. And it means that Americans, every every father, every mother, every little league coach, every PTA President, every city council member, school board member, we all need to focus on the things that made this country so unique and so special.

And if we don't, if we we get caught up in the eye, we get caught up in some fad of the moment. We'll see we'll see this continued decline in America's understanding of itself as an important, good place. And, you know, I was a 70th secretary of state.

I was a CIA director. The 75th secretary of state and the successors, their work won't matter because if we decay from within, if America truly does find itself secularized and declining and decaying, then we won't get another 250 good years. I know we will. I'm counting on it.

I believe we will. But it's going to take every one of us pitching in and being honest and being forthright about the things that have built this amazing country. And we appreciate your service to our country, your work with us here at the ACLJ, your comments on this. We really do need leadership and I appreciate you joining us today on the show, because that's what it feels like we're lacking is we all want to do the right thing. It's what is the how do it's what we need leaders to give us that path forward that are at that national level who are not afraid to talk about it right away. Right. So, you know, like Secretary Pompeo, he's not hiding my he's dressing it right.

And immediately we had people dressing it this morning. We had last night, obviously, a flurry of people who are not only personally reaching out to us, but have tweeted publicly and are putting out statements. But then the ones that are silent are the ones that are deafening.

And and that's been the concern for me. Or the laughing President. Or the laughing President. The laughing President talking about chocolate chip ice cream. What he said was about it. It was over overcome by this.

He doesn't even take it seriously. Yeah. Well, I think Secretary Pompeo for for calling in and talking to that was it. Look, that wasn't what he was supposed to talk about. We'll make that clear.

We're going to talk about China. We're going to talk about all this other stuff. And we just didn't get to it. We have to we can't move on. But tomorrow we have to be able to keep our discussions going. As you said, we're in mourning right now.

We are grieving right now. That is expected, especially since in our local community. But this is not going to be every day. We're going to we're going to have other other discussions and other conversations. I don't want you to think that we are not going for us not to spit while the national news is covering mostly our city. And we live right there and we drive right by it that we wouldn't talk to you about it because it's firsthand experience for all of us.

Yeah. Your kids are at home. Mine are essentially in lockdown at their school. No, we're going back. Maybe we got the email that we're going back to. Some of it was because there's such a media circus around the school. It's chaos. And they don't want the parents to be subject to the ambush journalism.

What did you think? I saw kids. I'm not going to name my daughter's school, but they were in the news, too, because they were running out. It's just it's tough, tough situation. Yeah. Hey, can we cut the music real quick?

Is that fine? I just want to say we cut the music real quick as we wrap this up. We're just going to take a second to pray for our community. And it's not something we usually do on the show. This is not that kind of show. But but this is an important time.

Don't do it. But this is a very emotional time. So as we have 30 seconds left, I just want to say our prayer is, you know, Dear God, please. Let there be changes in the hearts and minds of people. Let politicians move beyond their own political beliefs and most importantly, protect our children as they go through this. More so than we even as parents and comfort parents and comfort our country as we see this over and over again. And let us figure out that path that you have for us to move forward and give us hope.