Biden Bribery Scheme: GOP Takes On FBI

Today on Sekulow, the House Oversight Committee Chairman takes on the FBI over the alleged Biden bribery scheme. 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.

Hey, welcome to Sekulow. We are taking your calls at 1-800-684-3110 on this going into a holiday weekend. We'd love to hear from you and get your thoughts on a number of the issues we'll be talking about. Some new ACLJ work as well. The ACLJ getting more and more active in court. I know that I'll have some more updates for you even after the Memorial Day holiday next week about more ACLJ actions in federal courts across the country defending your rights.

So we're excited about that, excited to spend more time talking about that on the broadcast. But I first wanted to go to was with this back and forth between the FBI and Congress over a whistleblower who put forward that there was a $5 million bribe, bribery scheme between Ukrainian officials and Joe Biden when he was Vice President. And Congressman Comer, who chairs the oversight committee, has asked for that information. Remember, it's the FBI form.

It's the 1023 form, the confidential form it fills out. Remember, the House Oversight Committee oversees the federal government. They have a right to basically everything because they fund the federal government. They are the ones that write the check to keep the FBI open. So when they ask for information, usually they are supposed to get it unless there is an ongoing investigation. It doesn't seem like there is. Maybe there should be, but it doesn't like there is an ongoing investigation into this matter. So there's this back and forth.

Now they are threatening Logan. And we saw this a lot during the Obama years. Finally, Republicans saying it's not necessarily impeachment, but we are going to hold you in contempt, Christopher Wray, which can be prosecuted in court. We don't think Merrick Garland would do that, but it's kind of the next step below impeaching a cabinet member. Yeah, it's headed that way.

The question I guess I have for you, maybe you can explain this, is what that next step actually looks like. If you know that there's a good chance that he won't be, that they won't do anything about this, do the American people see this as a waste of time or should they see this actually as some accountability being held? I think if you look at the big picture, holding someone in contempt doesn't take a ton of time. It's like a vote. So it's a regular kind of congressional vote.

It happens on a committee and I think then it happens on the floor too. Again, not a significant amount of time. It's not like impeachment where it takes so much aggressive time. You're only going to do this if he's ignoring the committee, which he can't do.

He could even start coming back and forth with parts of the 1023 form, heavily redacted, then start a negotiation with the committee instead of just ignoring them, which is what he is doing right now, because he must believe he's got the backing of the White House, obviously, and DOJ to do just that because they don't want this form out there. They don't want to know whether or not the FBI investigated these allegations that Joe Biden accepted a $5 million bribe. And this all dates back to, the tip is dated back to June 30th of 2020. Ukrainian officials, this is interesting just to point out, on June 13th of 2020, so seven days before this informant tip is dated that Joe Biden was bribed with $5 million and there's a $5 million bribery scheme when he was vice President. Seven days before that, a week before that in Kiev, there was a press conference where Ukrainian officials showed $5 million in cash, allegedly offered as a bribe to end what? The investigation into the natural gas company, Burisma, and its founder, Mikola Zolochevsky. Who was on the board of Burisma until 2019 and certainly wouldn't want them to be investigated by Ukrainian prosecutors?

Hunter Biden. Always good to hear another Burisma. Whenever you hear Burisma, you know a lot of people's ears perk up and we're sure you have some thoughts on that as well. When you hear $5 million scheme, when you hear Burisma, when you hear Ukraine.

Holding up the briefcases. And you know that now something could be done and we have some proof in it too. Give us a call, 1-800-684-3110. We'd love to hear from you on your thoughts on this. If you have any questions also, not just thoughts, ask questions, Jordan.

You can ask one as well, 1-800-684-3110. Also support the work of the ACLJ by going to ACLJ.org later in the broadcast. We've got Tulsi Gabbard and Mike Pompeo joining us.

So it's going to be a stacked show. Stay tuned. We'll be right back in just a minute.

Welcome back to SECIO. We are taking your calls as well on a host of issues. So the FBI document, we got a call on that.

We'll get to that in a moment. There's a lot of news involving the FBI this week on Capitol Hill. One that we are working on directly and that we filed just yesterday in federal court after we were on the air. It's in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. Against of course the ACLJ. Against the FBI, the defendants in the case.

This is a complaint for a declaratory injunctive relief. Because remember the Richmond Field Office of the FBI targeting radical, traditionalist, Catholics, RTCs. Then they denied actually doing anything. They said it was just a one-off memo. That's what they always do like when they targeted the Tea Party.

This is one bad actor. We had them immediately take it down. Then we found out the memo made it all its way across the FBI field offices all across the country. And they had actually gone so far as to place someone undercover inside a Catholic church in Richmond. So that before the program ultimately we are told by Merrick Garland and Christopher Wray that it was shut down. So we are getting to the bottom of it through the FOIA. When we filed the FOIA with the FBI, I mean it's not any clearer than, I mean you've got an actual document.

You've got the actual bulletin the FBI put out. You've got the knowledge about informants going inside to recruit other informants inside the churches. You have the diagram of the FBI and they're looking for these RTCs which they connect to DVE, domestic violent extremism. They want to connect radical, traditionalist Catholics.

You think about the Catholics who are pro-life and actually practice their faith are now seen as potential terrorists, domestic terrorists in our country. So we want to get to the bottom of, of course, who was putting this together at the FBI. When there was the freak out, was there an actual freak out or did they just say, ah, they caught us, take it down and we'll do it under a different name. We really want to know and is this still going on. We've also asked you if you're at a church, a place of worship, and you believe that there's someone that's come in that has started to ask questions, like asking questions about, you know, the church or extremism, we want you to contact us at ACLJ.org slash help.

That's ACLJ.org slash help. Yeah, let's go ahead and go to the phones. We're going to take your calls 1-800-684-3110. Mary's calling from Maryland on Line 1. You're on the air. Hey there.

It's wonderful to talk to you and I thank you so much for taking my call and all that you do. Sorry about that. So Mary was just curious again about more people being held accountable and how that actually works if they're not given the, if Congress isn't given the ability to do so. But they could, they could still push something forward. The focus really is going to be, it's election year focus, right? So the focus is not necessarily Joe Biden getting criminally charged.

That doesn't happen while he's present. Hunter Biden is under investigation. Some of this, the House committees who are Republican led, are trying to get this to the special counsel investigating Hunter Biden as quickly as possible because they believe that this is even more important than some of the allegations out there about what they might be charging with. But Lord knows, I mean, I'll ask our producer, Will, how many weeks have we been talking about it looks like Hunter Biden's about to get popped with an indictment and then another two weeks go by? I mean, it's just every two weeks. Yeah, it seems like this is, I can't even tell the producers.

I'm a bit sick of talking about Hunter Biden because it does feel like we're on repeat. It feels like there's just another, another big piece of the puzzle happens, but again, there's not really progress. And that's maybe why you get frustrated. I think that's why you're frustrated as one of our listeners going, okay, you've revealed more. Now you've revealed more. Now you've revealed more. When will you have some sort of reckoning if all of this is now becoming public record?

Yeah. Well, I think again, there's two kinds of way to have reckoning, elections, and don't tell me all we can't win because they're rigged. We need to do, and I'm finally starting to see Republicans say it.

Sean Hannity said it and he's totally right. We need, if your state allows ballot harvesting, we need to do it. If your state allows early voting, we need to do it without an excuse. If your state allows, sends out absentee ballots to everybody who, or anybody who wants to request one, we should have an absentee ballot chase program.

Where we track those and do it. We need to use the full extent of the law, not anything illegal, but don't act like we're too good to use the legal methods available to win elections. If we do not, Democrats will continue to win.

So that's part one of how you have an ultimate reckoning. Then number two is you put in a leader who is going to carry out that reckoning. And I think you've got a few of those running in the Republican field right now who would not be afraid of taking on Washington DC and draining the swamp. Obviously the one, Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis has had a similar message. And I even think people like Tim Scott, who might have a softer tone, they know how Washington works. They also know how to, I think, impact the system from the inside and the outside. So Nikki Haley, who's seen that as well. I mean, I think you go through the list. It's a lot of MAGA people.

And a lot of people who I think, whoever it is, would do much better than what we have right now. It would understand that this is not just a talking point to Americans, but we want to see something done. I mean, I go to our ACLJ case. Will you ask Ben Cissie real quick how many cases we have against the FBI right now?

Because this one is so important. We filed the FOIA. Remember we talked about earlier in the week when those FBI whistleblowers started showing up and they were in tears before these committees because they had lost their jobs or been put on unpaid leave. So basically were living out of their cars. They couldn't even get their furniture because the FBI was moving them cross country and then keeping in storage facilities, not letting them access it. And in those situations, what most of them were testifying to was that the FBI is over-inflating domestic violence extremism numbers. By using January 6, instead of using it as one event, which is how you would think you would investigate it, is that yes, there were people from all over the country, but they came together for one event, one cause.

That was with the driving force. And instead they've broken them up into every town and city one of those individuals was found in. So it makes it look like when they arrest you in Tulsa or then they arrest somebody in Kansas City and then they arrest somebody in Eastern Washington State and then somebody in Florida that you've got and they're arrested for domestic violent extremism against the U.S. government, it looks like, wow, this is happening all over the country, not just in January 6. And what they were saying was all of these arrests were related to January 6. There is not a purge of domestic violent extremism happening across the country. In fact, the number one killer of Americans is Fentanyl.

And of course those are brought over by this kind of criminal gangs and cartels that the FBI should be laser focused on disrupting and ultimately destroying. Yeah, absolutely. I think we should get this call because it's pretty important and a lot of people have the question. Kate's calling in Colorado on Line 3. Kate, you're on the air.

Hi, thank you so much for taking my call. It is time to fight fire with fire and start filing lawsuit after lawsuit after lawsuit against these people, just like they've done, yes, for Trump, which is the obvious target, but pro-life and Christians and conservatives. Why can we not get this ball rolling and do the same to them legitimately, of course, that they have done to all these other people and will continue to do and get worse at? Well, we've got to get in charge of the DA's offices and the major cities. We've got to encourage good DA's to bring, like you said, legitimate cases when they are legitimate against investigations when they're legitimate. But ultimately, when you're talking about the federal issue, we have no control over federal prosecutions right now.

That is ultimately 100% up to, again, the Merrick Garland and Joe Biden Department of Justice. So they are not going to do a lot of work, unfortunately, that you are going to like, especially if it touches the political space. Even outside of that, I wish I could say all this about Merrick Garland and Christopher Wray, that they were really going after the cartels and the fentanyl deaths were decreasing and our border was becoming more secure. And I would at least say, you know what, I don't like their policies. I hate what they're doing about dividing the country.

But at least they're not just spending all their time on diversity training and domestic violent extremism. You kind of held that way with Clinton. I feel like the Clinton administration is like, you may not have liked him and I did not. But at least Bill Clinton, there was a lot of sort of positivity going around in his presidency. Obviously, there was a lot of negative as well. But it seemed like there was a bit of thoughts of the economy was good. Things were a bit trending up.

So that was the last time I remember a Democrat being in office and it not being, of course, it became personally very chaotic, but where there was sort of an overall agreement that things are OK. Right. Yeah. So that's that's just my thoughts on that.

Yeah. When we were to take your phone calls, one eight hundred six eight four thirty one ten, we come back, we're going to talk another Supreme Court case against Planned Parenthood that we are filing. This is another ACLJ case. We have been in court against Planned Parenthood since, I think, 2016 out in California in federal court. We have now appealed to unwrit to the U.S. Supreme Court. We'll update you on that. Also, Chuck Schumer rips the MAGA Supreme Court.

This one's good when they voted nine to zero. So we'll get into that as well. Harry Hutchinson is going to be joining us. And just to let you know, ACLJ active cases against the FBI right now. We have five active federal lawsuits against the FBI that we're in court over right now at the ACLJ. That does not include other intelligence agencies we have federal court cases against right now.

Five just with the FBI. Support our work. We'll continue to do more. Donate today at ACLJ.org. Welcome back to Seckville. We are taking your calls to one eight hundred six eight four thirty one ten.

That's one eight hundred six eight four three one one zero. I just want to update you quickly about an ACLJ case at the U.S. Supreme Court. We have filed against Planned Parenthood. It is a critical abortion case where they are trying to shut down pro-life speech.

Surprise, surprise. Planned Parenthood trying to shut down pro-life speech in the United States of America. So the Americans served for law and justice just yesterday while actually today. The other case against the FBI was yesterday. This was this morning when we officially filed a petition for a writ of certiorari. So we're asking the Supreme Court to take the case to correct the unjust result in a major abortion case involving Planned Parenthood since early 2016. So when you talk about how committed the ACLJ is to the battles for freedom of speech, for life, for your rights, against government corruption, against a government overreach, for good policies, against bad policies. This is an example of a case that has been going on for seven years that we have never wavered from. And again, it does not cost our clients a dime to fight through that because of our donors at the ACLJ. We've been able to keep Planned Parenthood in court. They bring in the biggest law firms in the country. They try to wear you down.

Of course, wear down your resources as well. But you make sure we're able to fight back just as strongly, just as aggressively in court because of your financial contributions to the ACLJ. So this is a reminder to donate today just to one of these cases at ACLJ.org. It involves Troy Newman, our client, who was a former board member of the Center for Medical Progress. You remember they released those videos about the sale of aborted babies' body parts.

And let me tell you something. Looking back at that now, Logan, I think that was obviously the judicial appointments that Donald Trump made to the U.S. Supreme Court were the major impetus for the overturning of Roe vs. Wade. I think those videos were so damaging to Planned Parenthood.

Not that it's worth them being in court trying to get these people, have judgments of millions of dollars, basically bankrupt them and shut them up forever. But I think that was the impetus to say, you know what? Maybe Roe vs. Wade does go too far.

Yeah, absolutely. And I think it also sort of, like I said, not only changed the narrative within how Americans see it, but maybe even how Planned Parenthood decided they could market themselves. We've seen a lot of changes in Planned Parenthood recently. They just laid off 700 people and decided to refocus that money to pro-life states to provide services other than abortion. So them actually saying, hey, we need some money if we're going to fund things that aren't abortion, which, again, is what we told you, that always that percentile is always ridiculous.

But by laying off 700 members of their staff, that kind of shows you even how they're trying to figure out how to continue their business in a world post-dobs. Now, obviously, there's still plenty of states, and this is something we've brought up a million times, there are plenty of states where the abortion laws are still very extreme. Obviously, there are some where they're extreme on the other side, the pro-life side, where there are no exceptions. On the other side, you have, we'll fly you out there.

There's so many different variations. We're in court in most of those states still fighting it. But I know you wanted to discuss what we're also doing with Harry. I just want to admit that they're going after our client here, and that's why we're appealing to the Supreme Court over millions of dollars. There were Planned Parenthood officials actually prosecuted because these videos were released.

So they were not distorted. They were correct, the videos that were released, and they have led to criminal prosecutions. Of course, we've ultimately seen the overturning of Roe v. Wade. But I do want to turn to another major case of the Supreme Court, and this is work we're going to be expanding on at the ACLJ into more economic cases, environmental policy cases.

So get ready for that. You'll hear more about it from us at the ACLJ. A huge EPA case, Harry, that really should have not been a huge case. Tell people about it. Just first, it was a small home built by basically a creek that became a U.S. Supreme Court case.

Absolutely. So we have two homeowners, or at least hopeful homeowners, the Sacketts, Michael and Chantelle Sackett. They lived in Iowa. The EPA attempted to prohibit them from building a home near a wetland several years ago. The EPA ordered the Sacketts to restore the site after they had commenced construction.

They threatened penalties of over $40,000 per day. Alito, Justice Alito, in his majority opinion, stated that the EPA classified the wetlands on the Sacketts lot as waters of the United States because they were near a ditch that fed into a creek, which fed into a lake. And basically, the EPA claimed all of those waters as American controlled waters. So this was an absurdity upon an absurdity, and the Supreme Court in a unanimous decision ruled against the EPA's overreach. And then in a stunning development, Senator Chuck Schumer claimed that this was a MAGA Supreme Court decision. In other words, he doesn't understand that a unanimous decision by the Supreme Court means that both liberals and conservatives agreed that the EPA had engaged in a tremendous overreach. And we actually have that tweet up on the screen right now, and it says, this is from Chuck Schumer, again, he's retweeting a breaking news article from the Washington Post, but this MAGA Supreme Court has continued to erode our country's environmental laws. Make no mistake, this ruling will mean more polluted waters and more destruction of wetlands.

We'll keep fighting to protect our waters. And of course, Twitter, they put a fact check in there, which I enjoy, and they put, all nine judges agreed that the EPA overstepped its authority and that the plaintiffs' property should not be subject to EPA regulations. So, pretty interesting thing to have Chuck Schumer come out and make a big statement, almost as if he didn't read the article himself. He obviously didn't because the Washington Post headline doesn't say what the number was. That's because they didn't want to say that it was nine to zero. Then they tried to make it look like it was not really nine to zero because there are four judges who disagreed on the limits of the EPA authority with respect to wetlands. That's again, that's what we refer to.

That's not important to the actual decision, so they oftentimes disagree on that kind of language that's inside these opinions because it's not at the heart of what the opinion is about. To me, it underscores that the reality that Chuck Schumer, did he ever correct the tweet, guys? I don't think so.

Will ever correct it? He kept it up. No, no, he wouldn't do that.

He kept it up. He's calling Sotomayor, Jackson, and Kagan MAGA justices. I'm sure they love that. Yeah, MAGA justices. Remember, he thought MAGA justices deserve to be protested at their homes, Harry.

Absolutely. Chuck Schumer has made a habit of threatening Supreme Court justices in the past. He's likely to do it in the future.

And what the American people need to do going forward is ensure that he no longer remains majority leader. You know, is he going to unleash the whirlwind? Yeah, maybe. On Justice Jackson and Sotomayor and Kagan? Yeah.

I mean, in this definition. Certainly, they want to unleash the whirlwind on everyone else, on the Supreme Court. But he also knows, sadly, and thankfully, Twitter, actually, I'm not for a fact checker kind of thing, because we've had that happen to us.

This is their new thing, right? But at least they went out there and put that, because if not, you know what really happens? Most Democrats see it. They don't also read the article. They don't see that it was nine to zero, and that message gets across. That's why I'm glad there's actually some people out there going, no, Republican or Democrat, we're going to actually make sure that you can't just randomly make a blanket statement and mislead people. That's all it is, misleading people.

Yeah. All right, folks, we will, again, continue to take your phone calls, 1-800-684-3110. A lot to talk about we've still not gotten to on the show. Tulsi Gabbard is going to be joining us in the next segment of the broadcast.

She's a senior analyst for the Secular Broadcast. Mike Pompeo is going to be joining us. Of course, we're going into Memorial Day weekend.

I know they'll both have something to say about that as well. Support the work of the ACLJ. We've talked about a number of ACLJ cases we've just filed yesterday and today.

We've got more coming next week. Donate today at ACLJ.org. We need your support.

Formed and engaged, now more than ever. This is Secular. And now your host, Jordan Secular. All right, welcome back to Secular. I do want to take some of your calls to 1-800-684-3110.

That's 1-800-684-3110. Coming up live joining us Tulsi Gabbard. We're going to talk about, again, the White House and Congress not being able to find, what is it, $3 billion to Ukraine. And they freed that up. But, of course, instead of putting that back into the account while they can't, you know, reach a decision on the debt ceiling, I wanted to talk to her about that since she was a member of Congress on the other side of the aisle. And these debt ceiling discussions that would go on, the government shutdowns, the defaulting, all of that back and forth that seemed to kind of drive everybody crazy. And then ultimately you get to, hopefully, a goal that doesn't seriously negatively impact our U.S. economy in the short term.

In the long term, we've got to figure out spending. We're also going to be joined by Mike Pompeo on some State Department issues as well with Afghanistan. And on Memorial Day, he's written a new piece up at ACLJ.org. He writes exclusive content there. Two new pieces up this week exclusive to the ACLJ.

It's the only place you can find it. He's got one up on Memorial Day as well at ACLJ.org. But, Logan, we can go to the phones. Yeah, let's go to Bill in Wyoming on Line 2. Bill, welcome. Hi, I appreciate you taking my call.

Memorial Day greetings to everybody listening. I'm kind of frustrated because didn't back in 2020 this administration, this is a two-part question. Back in 2020, this administration guaranteed transparency. So that's my question, first part of the question.

The second part is, if such is so, this is a rhetorical question. Why do we have to have all these FOIA requests in the first place? Why do we need all these FOIA requests in the first place? Because when you have a large government, which we do, I think, listen, would it be nice not to have to file a FOIA? And honestly, would it be nice just to file the FOIA and not have to go to court?

I think that's where the distinction is. You want a FOIA process. Those are like sunshine laws. The way it's supposed to work is that you want to find out more information about what the federal government is doing. So you file a FOIA. That doesn't mean you automatically have to go into court. But the problem has been that the agencies have set up a process that instead of complying with the FOIAs, since it does issue an opportunity for someone to go into court if they don't reply on time, they'd rather just not reply on time and drag it out in federal court and use the DOJ attorneys to do that for them. So that is the huge problem that we face constantly, Bill, inside when we're dealing with FOIA. So you have to have a FOIA process. But it's supposed to work within 20 or 30 days. You're not supposed to have to go to court.

That's supposed to be the rarity. Unfortunately, it's become the norm. But that is okay. If you're big enough and strong enough as the ACLJ, you get to the bottom of it. And ultimately, the American people get the info they rightfully deserve. Yeah, absolutely. You should go visit ACLJ.org.

I know I say it all the time. But right now, you can get directly involved, whether that's in signing a petition or you can just read the great content, watch the incredible videos. Obviously, subscribe on our YouTube and our Rumble channels because both of those put out great video content. If you're not much of a reader, we'll break it all down for you in video form. And you can find all these great articles posted by everyone you hear on this broadcast, whether that is Harry Hutchinson, who was on the last segment, or Mike Pompeo, later on in some of the great video content.

We cover a lot of things on there, whether it's our specific cases, what's going on in the news, what's going on and how your faith impacts your politics. And all of that is on ACLJ.org. And of course, you can make a donation, which is how this all works. We're a completely independent organization.

I want that to be very clear. We see a lot of world right now where you notice that maybe those who are running the show aren't in your best interest. And maybe there's a great pocket of people putting on a show. Well, the person who owns that show doesn't always agree.

Here's the deal. The ACLJ is completely independent. We are fully backed and fully supported by people like you. So all you have to do is go to ACLJ.org, make a donation. Not only does it keep this broadcast on the air, but it also funds all of the legal work that we do, whether it's for you or whether it is to take on our government when absolutely necessary.

And it is absolutely necessary. We'll be taking your calls coming up also 1-800-684-3110. That's 1-800-684-3110. In our next segment, we'll be joined by Tulsi Gabbard. You're going to make sure you stay tuned for that. We'll be back in just a minute.

But again, ACLJ.org. We appreciate you. Go take a look over there. We'll be right back. All right. Welcome back to Secular. So we are joined by our senior analyst for military and political affairs Tulsi Gabbard, a former member of Congress, a person who serves in our military, who has run for President as well.

So a whole host of issues I want to get to Tulsi. Right off the bat, I just want to ask you about the importance of Memorial Day to you as someone who continues to serve our country and our armed forces. And we know that there's men and women, even when we don't have mass-scale conflicts going on around the world, that Americans are involved in, that every time you put that uniform on, even in training, that you are risking your life. At Jordan, Memorial Day is just one day a year to mark, remember, and honor our brothers and sisters who paid the ultimate price. You know, those we've served with our brothers and sisters who did not make that long trip home with us, we hold them in our hearts every single day. We hold their Gold Star families in our hearts every single day. Memorial Day marks a year where we as a country come together to make sure that their memories are never forgotten.

I was just at Fort Bragg over these last couple of days, joining my fellow service members as well as Gold Star families in a number of different ceremonies to really celebrate that sacrifice, to celebrate that selflessness and to celebrate how it truly embodies their love of country. This is such an important time for us to remember them and to remember why they raised their right hand and volunteered to put their lives on the line. It's these fundamental principles of freedom and our ability to pursue life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. It's incredibly important now, especially as we have the Biden administration and the cabal of the most powerful entities in our country, the propaganda media, some in the national security state, big tech, all working together to undermine those fundamental freedoms. We've got to remember what our brothers and sisters sacrificed their lives for and do everything that we can every day that we are alive to honor their memory by standing up for those freedoms. So important to get that message across.

We'll make sure we get that message to all of our folks on social media as well. You've, I'm sure, been involved with these debt ceiling negotiations and discussions that kind of drive the American people, I think, a little bit crazy. Are we going to default? Is there actually going to be a deal? How much are we going to extend spending by? How much are we actually going to cut spending by?

Does it really all matter? Where do you think we are right now when it comes to that, the ultimately a deal getting done between this White House and really the Republicans in Congress? Jordan, it looks like, at least today, it looks like they're making progress in their conversations tomorrow.

We'll see what news brings then. But, you know, the thing that I found so frustrating while I was serving in Congress, and I think the thing most people are frustrated about now is that it seems to be more about partisan political gamesmanship and getting the talking point that will help in the next election than it is really about sitting down and having those good faith negotiations to bring this country's spending under control. And this is part of the problem here is you have fundamental differences where you've got people like AOC giving speeches on the House floor who basically believes there should be no cap on spending, that we should spend that whatever, how much, because you just print more money and there's no consequence in her mind not recognizing the debt and deficit that we have in this country that continues to grow day by day. In all honesty, Democrats and Republicans have both over the years contributed to where we are right now. That should be accepted as a fact.

Got it? Can't change the past. Action needs to be taken now from both sides to bring things under control, to start to cut spending. And I think that the proposals that Kevin McCarthy is putting forward, they are common sense. They're not these radical proposals that the Democrats are making them out to be. So regardless, both sides are going to have to give in order for this deal to be done.

We will see if they do what is best for the country rather than what's best for the party. People kind of understand if you're an able-bodied American who can work and get a job, you shouldn't be on the government payroll. And that doesn't mean that you shouldn't have government programs to keep social safety net.

We want to have that as a country that's a leader in the world for the people who need that. But I wanted to point to another issue because it ties into all the spending and the just amount of money we talk about when we are talking about federal government spending. There's a Pentagon overestimated the value of the ammunition, missiles and other equipment that we sent to Ukraine by around $3 billion. And the way they're reporting it, I love this toll. See, the only way they're reporting it is this is an error that may lead the way for more weapons being sent to Ukraine. Not putting money aside to maybe our own military or replenishing what has been used on the battlefield to make sure that America has the weapons it needs. The way that it's being reported immediately is, wow, we found this $3 billion accounting error so we can spend more money in Ukraine. And there's like no other option for that money. This makes me so mad.

This makes me so mad for many reasons. Number one, they are making it sound like there are not other needs in the military that have to be met. And oops, we made a pencil error on the piece of paper. So now we've got this extra $3 billion to send to Ukraine. And yet the Pentagon has not passed an audit in our lifetimes. They have failed numerous times.

So because this one was discovered, I guarantee you there are more. They can't keep track of the money that they're spending and that they have been allotted. Number two, they refuse to pass legislation in Congress to track the money and the funding that's going to Ukraine to know, hey, how is that money being spent? Obviously, I disagree with the over $100 billion of our taxpayer dollars that have gone to Ukraine. But at a minimum, they won't even allow those dollars to be accounted for. When this accounting error was discovered, Jake Sullivan, who's the national security adviser for Joe Biden, told Jake Tapper on CNN.

I'm going to read this quickly because it shows how out of touch they are. He tells Jake Tapper at the end of the day, not one penny of U.S. dollars will have gone missing or have been misallocated. It will all be provided in the form of equipment to Ukraine on the battlefield.

Of course, it would be better to get it right in terms of the accounting up front. The Pentagon corrected the error. Ukraine will get what it needs. And the American taxpayer will be confident that this money is being spent effectively and appropriately. He says not one penny of U.S. dollars will have gone missing.

Are you kidding me? Who is supposed to believe this after we saw through the Afghanistan papers, as we've seen evidence time and time again, trillions of dollars that have gone unaccounted for. And now you want us to believe that all of a sudden every penny that they send to Ukraine will be best allocated.

There's all of a sudden no corruption in Ukraine. Meanwhile, we have soldiers, service members, families here at home who are struggling. In my home state of Hawaii, the cost of living allowance that's given to soldiers overseas who have to spend more in a high cost of living environment, that's being cut by almost six hundred dollars in some families cases.

Drastic cuts. And they cannot tell me that the cost of gas has gone down in Hawaii. It has not. They can't tell me the cost of groceries has gone down in Hawaii.

It has not. And yet families in Hawaii stationed there, Marines, airmen, sailors and soldiers, they're having to figure out, OK, how are we going to have to cut back now? Because apparently our government thinks that things cost less.

It makes no sense. They are not custodians, good custodians of taxpayer dollars, and they are wasting our taxpayer dollars in areas where they are not needed. Yeah, absolutely. I think that's where people really had that big problem and have had sort of a bigger, broader issue now as the war has progressed and continued on.

They're exhausted from it. But you also have the situation where even years ago we were putting not years ago, like last year, we were putting all of our service members on food stamps and that kind of situation. We go, OK, we're willing to spend the money. Americans are willing to spend the money to support our military families.

I think those are one of the few places that probably universally everyone can agree. Yeah, that's OK. Let's help them. Let's help them with their groceries, help them with their serving force instead of sending this money to ridiculous situations or putting money in places where. And then there's the debt ceiling.

There's all these things that pile up financially that feel like they just get lost. And the soldiers and all the military people who we really at least should be taking care of their basic needs are getting lost in this. I'd say going in, Tulsi, to this Memorial Day weekend, and we remember the brave who have fallen to protect our rights and liberties so we can have these conversations and not be afraid and be able to have serious debates in our country and have all of our different views and political views and religious views is that the military is having a tough time recruiting right now. Get tougher, and that is not good for the United States. We need leaders who will act in the best interest of our country, our security and our freedoms.

We are being failed by the leaders we have right now, and we need to remember that and bring about that change in these coming elections for the sake of our fallen, for the sake of our country, for the sake of our future. We always appreciate you joining us on the broadcast. A member of our broadcast team as Tulsi Gabbard, our senior analyst for military and political affairs.

We come back. Mike Pompeo is going to be joining us. He's got a new piece up on Memorial Day as well.

We're going to get into some of those Afghanistan papers that Tulsi mentioned as well. I just think it's so important as we go into Memorial Day weekend, we remember as so many of us have, you know, pool parties and barbecues, you know, I think that's OK. That's a very American thing to do is we remember why we have that day off on Monday. If you are so blessed to have it off, a lot of Americans are going to be working and a lot of servicemen and women stationed around the world, they will be working on that Memorial Day. Then we have to remember what these holidays are about and teach our kids why we take the time.

It's not just for a pool party. It's to remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice. We'll be right back on Sekulow with Mike Pompeo.

You don't want to miss it. Welcome back to Sekulow. We are joined by our senior advisor, Mike Pompeo, senior counselor for Global Affairs, former secretary of state. Secretary Pompeo, you have a new piece up at ACLJ.org. You've got two new ones this week at ACLJ.org, and those are exclusive to our website as part of our you're a member of our team here at the ACLJ. And this one is on the holiday weekend. And you note, while it's the kickoff of summer and Americans are surely excited about that and kids are excited about that across the country, school comes to a close that we cannot forget why we have Memorial Day.

What do you want people to take away from the article you have up? I think this is a great one for folks to share today and over the weekend with their friends and family so that while you're having your barbecues, while you're coming together as family, you remember why we have this day off. Yeah, Jordan, thanks. This one was from the heart for sure. I hope folks will take this ACLJ piece and send it to their cousins, their friends, maybe the coworkers, and just remind people how blessed we are.

You're an American citizen, you have a blue passport, you have all the freedoms we have, you know, Jordan, we spent a lot of time talking about the problems that face our country today. These men and women who have given their lives on behalf of us to give us all of these things, the fact that we can have this debate, we can have this discussion. This weekend is to remember them. I had this incredible privilege to serve for four years, but a couple times along the way, I had the burden of heading out to Dover Air Force Base to greet the families when their loved ones were coming home, having taken the full cost, the full measure of their lives for this country.

I think back to those days, I think back to those families, they are amazing people, and every American this weekend should go out, have fun, do the things we do here in America. The men and women who lost their lives would want us to do that, but make no mistake, we should spend a little bit of time praying for them, thinking about them, and thinking about the families as well. Yeah, you also draw attention to the Gold Star families, the wives, the husbands, the mothers, the fathers, the children who have lost their loved ones in the line of duty and how we remember them on Memorial Day. What do you say to someone who's just listening to say, you know, I've got this event, my kids are excited, it's the beginning of summer and we're going to this event, but just to tell people, as a former Secretary of State, as someone who went to West Point, served in the military, what would you tell them is just a way they can kind of stand with those who live this every day?

You know, it's really easy and important that we do all of that. Look, when you're headed out to the picnic or to the ballpark, just take a couple minutes to stop your kids from playing games, get them off their device, and tell them a story. Tell them about someone in your neighborhood that served in uniform, tell them about a story about a grandpa who served in World War II or an uncle who served in Vietnam or in Iraq. Just remind them, tell them real stories that will touch their lives in ways that I think the next generation has to do. We've talked about this before now, a very small fraction of adults here in America have actually served in uniform in the United States. And remind them of the stories, the reason those people choose to do that, that some of them don't come home to their families. And on Memorial Day, we should remember them and we should thank them both in deeds and the way that we act in passing it down to the next generation and reminding ourselves, too, how blessed we are to be part of this country that those men and women gave their lives for.

Yes, absolutely. I think there are a lot of our listeners who obviously feel that way. They want to show their appreciation, want to show their respect and figure out ways to do that. Like you said, I think it's a great idea. Tell your kids about this.

Set them down. Talk to why it's important. Why is it necessary? My kids have been following, just by osmosis, by being around a lot of what's happening in the world of politics, just because we'll have the news on, we'll have something on, whether that's an announcement from a DeSantis, an announcement from someone else. And they're following, they're asking a lot of questions, but there are some universal questions that can kind of break all of these political cycle. And a lot of that has to do with our nation's military. I also encourage you, we put out a documentary, Secretary Pompeo, you were in it, a number of people were in it, including Wes Smith from our office, who was one of the persons who set up the Dover Air Force Base for the memorial services. You can go really find a deep dive on that on our documentary. It's called Revenge of the Taliban. It was right after and during, real time during, we rolled it out during the horrible withdrawal from Afghanistan.

And I do think, and that's on our website, ACLJ.org or on our YouTube channel as well. But Secretary Pompeo, I do think that was an eye-opening moment for a lot of people, what all went down in Afghanistan with the withdrawal and things getting botched. And it's hard to not feel political even on these weekends, because it feels like the idea of just supporting your military, whether that is financially, whether that is personally, or whether that is politically, ends up becoming this divided line politically, unfortunately. Oh, goodness.

You know, I see that from time to time as well. It can't be the case. It is possible to both be horrified by the way this administration abandoned those men and women of Afghanistan and resulted in the death of 13 Americans. It didn't have to be the case. But it's not tragic because it was a Democrat President that did it. It's tragic because it was an American President that allowed that to happen.

And that's what we all need to remind ourselves. I should take a special moment here. For those of you who served in Afghanistan, be proud. That moment was unbearable. That moment was indecent.

That moment was a bad political decision by the President, bad strategic decision. But your service in Afghanistan was important and noble and saved lives. And so if you have a brother, a sister, a cousin, an aunt, an uncle, a friend who served in Afghanistan, remind them that this former secretary of state loves them and knows that their work saved American lives.

I know it happened. Thank every one of our service men and women who served in Afghanistan for what they did. Absolutely. You know, bringing up Afghanistan, I think it's important on this Memorial Day. Finally, the State Department has given access to Congress on the Biden Afghanistan documents after the GOP had to ultimately threaten to hold members of the executive branch in contempt of Congress.

So on Memorial Day, we remember those 13 U.S. service members who were killed in Kabul during the botched withdrawal. But we're also going to get more oversight. I think finally the State Department, which you used to oversee, and the White House buckled to the House saying we are not going to let this go away.

We are ultimately, we want this info so that if we are engaged in conflict, which unfortunately the U.S. will likely be again, or that we will never have a withdrawal like that again. June, we have to learn. We have to be better. We have to honor the men and women who had their lives tragically taken that day in August. We have to get that right. I'm glad that Congress is investigating. I hope that the hearings and proceedings will proceed in a bipartisan way, looking to get the facts so that something like this is very, very, very unlikely to ever happen again.

They deserve it. Every service member deserves to get this right. As always, we appreciate all of your insight, Secretary Pompeo. And the new articles are up on our website at ACLJ.org.

That's right. So I really do encourage people. We'll make sure it's kind of the focus of the weekend on our social media accounts. We'll share it a number of times.

It's exclusive to the ACLJ, where Secretary Pompeo writes a couple pieces a week for us as, again, Senior Counsel for Global Affairs. And so this one, as his role as CA Director as Secretary of State in the military, in Congress, at a West Point grad himself, it's a great person to get that perspective from on Memorial Day. So make sure, as you're looking for information, remind people about why we have this special weekend and that you can still celebrate. Because I think most of those who lost their life for defending our country would want you to be celebrating. That's because that's why they fought so that you would be able to live and their kids would live and their families would live in a country that had this kind of freedom and liberty. Even when things seem down, we have it so much better than the rest of the world. We just want to keep it that way.

That's the truth. So remember to thank, again, service members. To remember those we have lost, check out Mike Pompeo's piece up at ACLJ.org. And of course, if you can, support the work of the ACLJ. On all the issues we've discussed today, we are involved in directly in court or in Congress or around the world. Donate today.

ACLJ.org. Talk to you next week.