IRS HORROR STORY: Agent Used Fake ID to Enter Taxpayer’s Home

Today on Sekulow, the IRS horror story as an agent used a fake ID to enter a taxpayer's home. 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.

I want to pose this first by that if anything ever happens like this or has happened like this to you, please contact us at ACLJ.org slash help. You know we've done a lot of cases involving the IRS and we're not afraid to take the IRS on because this story we're about to tell you that Congressman Jim Jordan has uncovered. He's written to the chairman of the IRS, the commissioner of the IRS, Danny Werfel, who you might remember was the commissioner brought in after the Tea Party scandal to try and clean things up at the IRS.

So that's usually been his job, is to try to, is a cleanup act. So they brought him back again in the Biden administration. I guess acknowledging they do have some serious problems once again with the IRS trying to, at least in the appearance that it targets people because of their political views, shows up at Matt Taibbi's door. So they brought in a new commissioner once again, someone who's been there during crisis times for the IRS. They've gotten a lot of attention and flack because of their advertisements for armed IRS agents willing to shoot to kill.

I remember that. So the $80 billion for the 87,000 new agents that the House of Representatives is trying to hold up as much as they can. House Republicans are trying to hold up as much as they can.

But this story, just to briefly, we're going to actually get through it in the next segment of the broadcast, but I want to open the lines up for you to kind of hear from you. Do you feel like you've been kind of under attack before by these IRS agents who may be using illegal tactics even to get to you to the point where you're not sure if it's a scammer or an actual IRS agent? I mean, in the story we're about to tell you that Congressman Jordan has outlined here, you would think that this is someone trying to steal your identity or actually take the title from your home. Like those horror stories you hear about in some of the ads for some of those companies that do that protection.

You wouldn't realize, is this person that? Or are they really an agent of the federal government? I mean, here we had someone, just briefly, Logan, who literally used a fake ID, enters someone's private home, under false pretenses, says it's about one issue, then sits them down with paperwork and says, no, it's another issue. So right off the bat, they lied to get inside your door, they lied about their name, they lied about why they were there, and then they tried to get you to sign documents before you've even consulted an attorney. Yeah, you guys got to hear this whole story. We'll break it down in the next segment because it really will take a few minutes to kind of go through, and it does. We put on there the IRS horror story. It feels that way because it feels like almost like a home invasion.

It feels like one of these stories, like you said, that isn't real, but it is, and we're going to break it all down. And as Jordan said, if you've ever had these kind of run-ins with the IRS, we'd love to hear from you. 1-800-684-3110.

Just talk to our phone screener, we'll try to keep your information private. So 1-800-684-3110 if you're watching right now. Also, I need you to, if you're watching on any of our social media platforms, whether it's Rumble or YouTube, follow or subscribe. We appreciate that.

It gets people more watching what we're doing here and having more information. I've been gone for a couple weeks, so to jump right back in and have this be Jordan, the first thing that we're talking about, it is pretty hardcore, and it's something that people need to be aware of is happening. It's actually happening. When you read about it, it feels like I was talking to our producer.

There's only like two explanations for this, and it is either that they have hired some really incompetent people at the IRS to do these jobs, or there's some really kind of dark and evil stuff going on. And either one of them is bad. When you do see a push, hey, we need to hire 80,000 new people. Yeah, this is what happens when you do that.

You start getting people who are willing to take these extremes and probably break the law to actually subvert the American people. And we'll talk about that coming up. Yeah, that's right. I want to take your calls. 1-800-684-3110, have you been subject of aggressive IRS action to the point where you're not even sure? Am I dealing with a real IRS agent?

Because the way they show up at your house, the old technology that they use, it's like the scammers are more sophisticated than the IRS, and they sometimes seem more legitimate. But when you hear this story, literally, it should send shivers down your spine because the way that they lied, the way they even treated local law enforcement, because this person was concerned, they were the subject of a scam. Someone who got too close, give us a phone call. 1-800-684-3110. If you think you need legal help, contact us.

ACLJ.org slash help. We'll be right back. Welcome back to Seq Hill. We are taking your phone calls. 2-1-800-684-3110.

That's 1-800-684-3110. So we kind of painted the picture. Just to go over quickly, and we brought in our producer, Will Haynes, to kind of get into the facts of this because I wanted to actually wait until we had a long enough segment to tell you this horror story. It really sounds like out of something that is going to turn even worse because of the way this person was treated and how they were treated even when they contacted their local law enforcement to be like, you know, this guy showed up at my house.

It didn't seem like they were on the up and ups, and then they find out they're using a fake name. So, hey, can we run this person's tag? All those issues arose just for this one taxpayer and an out of control IRS agent. And you wonder how many out of control IRS agents are going around the country and people are scared to say anything. That's why we exist. I want to remind you, we exist because if this happens to you, you get the ACLJ to stand next to you.

So you don't have to be afraid of speaking up. And more and more people have got to speak up because if an agent acted this way, he didn't just act this way to this person. This has been a strategy he's been utilizing probably over and over and over again to get people to do things they shouldn't be doing before they consult an attorney or somebody who's a specialist before signing documents, being pressured to sign documents at their home. So generally what happened here is the IRS has received and the Congress has received an allegation that an IRS agent provided a false name to an Ohio taxpayer as part of a deception to gain entry into the taxpayer's home to confront them about delinquent tax filings. But when the taxpayer objected to the IRS agent's tactics, the IRS agent insisted, quote, that he could go into anyone's house at any time as an IRS agent, then goes in there and changes what the issue is actually about. I mean, Will, that's just the 10,000 feet overview.

The actual facts are just scary. That's right. So this agent showed up at the home of the taxpayer. And the issue here is also about an estate. So it was about the person's relative who had passed away.

So it gets a little bit more muddy there as well. But this agent shows up, identifies himself as Bill House with the IRS Criminal Division and seeks to speak with the person at the house about some estate filings, said that it was something about the property that wasn't completely done right. And so the taxpayer at that point thinks, OK, this is something we can discuss, but had never had any sort of notice come from the IRS, as they always say, you know, you'll get something in the mail from the IRS.

They won't call you. But this was an unannounced visit. The agent then goes into the home and starts speaking with the taxpayer. But when the taxpayer says all those things you're talking about, when the family member passed away, we were able to make sure everything was covered. Then changes the story and says it's actually not about the property at all, but it's about some delinquent tax returns. So some 1040 forms from the deceased family member. When that change happens, when it goes from being about the property to then the 1040s of the deceased family member, the taxpayer calls her attorney immediately and says, wait a second, this isn't something's not right. Something seems fishy.

She's a little nervous that maybe this is a scam. And then the attorney speaks with the agent, says I will handle this. You need to leave the home of the taxpayer. And that's when to the attorney representing the taxpayer, the agent says, I am an IRS agent.

I can be at and go into anyone's house at any time I want to be. So clear violation of the form for the amendment there about illegal search and seizure. So then finally they get the agent to leave. The taxpayer calls the police and says, here's the tag of the agent. I'm concerned this may be a scam.

I'm not sure what's going on. They run the plate, pull up a different name and contact the owner of that vehicle. And that person says, yes, I'm an IRS agent. I used an alias when I was in there. I wasn't using my real name. And many of this to the police. And many of them are lying about who they are.

Yeah. And the police department says, listen, you need to not go back to the home of that taxpayer. Handle it through official business.

And, but right now something is not right. That prompts the agent to file a complaint with the treasury inspector general for tax administration against the police department. So now the agent is so upset that the police said, Hey, you're not doing something right.

He files a complaint against the police department. All this goes on over a month that this taxpayer is having to deal with this. And finally, the taxpayer on May 4th speaks with the supervisor of this agent house, which is not their real name and clarified nothing's owed on the estate.

Everything's in order. And the supervisor even admits that things should never have gotten this far. So admitting something's wrong, then the next day, the very next day, the taxpayer receives a letter from the IRS. The very first one that they've received saying there's a delinquent tax filing on the deceased family member's estate. Calls the supervisor back, says that's an error. Ignore it. And then finally on May 30th, so well over a month that this taxpayer has been living with this horror story.

They get a letter from the IRS saying case closed. Nothing to see here. Move along. Sorry.

We harassed you like a M Night Shalom movie. Yeah. And so, I mean, what, and remember, would you have ever gotten that letter if you were a taxpayer that was just scared and signed those documents that that agent wanted them to sign? No, you, you have been paying money to the IRS over taxes that you were not responsible for, or, you know, this deceased person's delete. At first it was supposed to be something about the house. And then, so you've inherited this house, someone's passed away, so you get nervous about that.

And there's all, there's all tax codes about this. You haven't, this person had an attorney. They were dealing with an estate issue.

So they knew, again, what the process was. If you take this on, what you might owe, what you might owe in the future. And then they get in there and say, oh, it's not about the house.

It's about the dead person's bad taxes that they filed. And then if you question me, I'm going to get angry with you. I have every right to come into your house whenever I want. Let me tell you something right now. Unless they show you a warrant, don't let them in.

Ever. No law enforcement. I don't care, and I'm not trying to be mean to any police. But if they don't have a warrant, this is just a free legal advice, don't let them inside. And, like, unless you invited them inside for an emergency. Right, if there's a crime happening. That's where they're allowed to come in. They're allowed to come in when someone at the home says that they're, I need you here. They can then, after a knock knock and a boom boom, they can bust out if they believe that there is a crime being committed or someone is in danger.

Not a casual, let's check in. No, you don't just get to randomly knock. I mean, this is not, this is not a cop, even. But say, IRS, police, federal officers, they don't just get to knock on your door. They can't, a lot of times what the courts will say is they can though. And it's up to you to know that you don't have to let them in, even when they pressure you, if they don't have the proper warrant to be there.

But most people would be scared to death. Of course. And so, here's what I think you have to realize. This agent has to be held responsible. We need more oversight hearings on this specific topic. I would hope that the person this happened to is willing to testify because they went through all this so that people realize that if it happened to them, maybe they could come together as well. That's what happened in our Tea Party cases is that people heard the story about one of the groups and then they realized it happened to like 150.

We think it happened to over a thousand of the letters went out. But then it was really only about 30 groups at the end of the day were willing to fight the IRS. Most didn't want to.

So I always say that they're brave, really patriotic Americans who are willing to take a stand. So if something like this has happened to you and you feel like you're getting pressured like this, you should contact us at ACLJ.org slash help. Because if we agree to work with you on your case, it doesn't cost you a thing and we are ready to fight back against, and we have fought back against IRS abuse. Because think about it, if this person hadn't have taken a stand, they would currently be paying the IRS money they did not actually owe. And that was the goal of this agent. I think I could get this person to pay money they don't owe. It was all done in bad faith.

Every step of the way. Lying about their name. That can't be okay for the IRS. They're not the CIA.

That could be just oddly the one that stuck out the most. You can just lie about your name and get into it. That is subverting the public. That is lying to someone for your own... I don't even know what his gain was or her gain.

I don't know if it was a man or a woman. The part about this that is surprising, I told you and I still feel it, which is there's only two explanations and to me they're both bad. Which is like, there's an evil explanation of this guy went in there trying to do something bad, or they are hiring really bad people at their jobs. People who think they could go in and be like, I'm an IRS agent, now I get to go be James Bond.

That's not how this works. They are putting out advertisements with people wearing full body armor and symbiotic weapons and saying you need to be both an accountant and willing to shoot to kill. That is not the way that we... Again, IRS agents, you might have someone with a handgun in a situation where they're protecting either the IRS office building or if they're part of an unplanned raid. But they don't conduct the raid. They play the secondary role of them going in and getting the documents. They are not supposed to be on the front line. That's why we have federal law enforcement agencies, that's why we have the FBI and federal marshals.

They go in. If you want to be an FBI agent with a gun or a federal marshal, go apply to be that job. These are like undercover IRS agents knocking on people's doors with bonus. First of all, it was a scam because it was a scam by the US government to try and get this taxpayer, this American, to pay money they did not owe, hoping that they wouldn't ask their attorney.

The fact that they filed a complaint against the local law enforcement for even questioning, there's someone driving around their town using a fake name, knocking on people's doors, telling them to write them checks. It was also like, you know, I looked at your roof and there's some hail damage and I really think I could replace it. I'd like to clean your windows too. Alright, we'll be right back on Secula. Welcome back to Secula. We are taking your calls to 1-800-684-312.

That's 1-800-684-3110. I mean, that story again, and I'm so glad we have Jim Jordan at the helm of, again, the Judiciary Committee and the weaponization of the federal government, that subcommittee as well, because we have got to get to the bottom. There's no way this happened to just one person. This wasn't the first time this IRS agent used a false name, a false reason for entering a home, claims to the local law enforcement that they can go into your home whenever they want. No, they can't. You have to have a warrant. You don't just get to walk into people's houses as law enforcement, and most law enforcement truly respect that. You can knock on someone's door and they can allow you in, but most attorneys would usually advise you never to do that, even if you don't think you've done anything wrong or know that you've done nothing wrong, because in this case, the person had done nothing wrong and they were still trying to get them to write a check to the IRS right there with the paperwork. So this, to me, again, it's the abuse of government, but we've seen the IRS show up while people are testifying before Congress at their door.

Literally, while they know they're going to be in public, it's trying to shave them, and it's also used as a scare tactic. It freaks people out because it affects their ability to, their income and their ability to pay their bills. We're currently fighting them right now over documents regarding targeting of Christians. I mean, it's not like we're not actively always involved in what's going on in the IRS. It's why we tell you to get involved. We've been doing this now for decades, it feels like, but it feels like it's ramped up more and more.

But maybe you're right. Maybe it's more people are willing to speak out when they see people that are whistleblowers on the inside. That stuff starts happening. You have a community that's willing to go, this isn't right, and this is one of the most extreme cases of that. Remember, we know that in Richmond, Virginia, and Communique went out, first they said it was just in Richmond, then they realized that it went out to all IRS field offices. They put an undercover agent, we know at least once, so they've done, this is the second time they're using people that are arriving at locations under false pretenses. And this time it was a Catholic church because they were targeting the radical, traditionalist Catholics, the RTCs. Because they thought, with no evidence, by the way, that because those people were very conservative and Catholic, that white supremacist groups would then start showing up at their church services to recruit from the Catholic church. One thing they forgot, of course, through their history, is that most white supremacist groups are not real fond of Catholics. Usually the two groups they don't like, Catholics and Jews.

Historically they would not be. So they didn't have any evidence, by the way, that these groups, it wasn't like this mosque was known to have recruit with terrorists. That's one thing, if it's a facility where you have evidence, and even then you have to be very careful because of the religious liberty rights in America.

But here they just went off of a theory. These people might be subject to recruitment by these radical groups, so we're going to put an undercover IRS agent in to start asking questions. We want to hear from you on these, 1-800-684-3110, and if you think this happened to you, maybe you don't want to call the show, but you want to let us know and kind of look at the information, maybe work with an ACLJ attorney. Contact us.

There's no wrong reason. Don't feel like you're contacting us and should I or should I not. Don't worry about that. Just contact us if you think you need help.

ACLJ.org slash help. Let's go to the phones, 1-800-684-3110. If you want to talk to us on air and give us a phone call, weigh in on this. Of course our lines are open for you at 1-800-684-3110. Let's go to Ann who's calling in Maryland on line 4. Ann, you're on the air. Thanks for taking my call. I just wanted to ask you all to comment on, again, this just being another example of a tyrannical, coercive, out of control government who's literally taking our freedoms one by one.

Yeah. Well, listen, I think that this is, it's up to the American people to hear these stories and say we have to correct these problems. To correct these problems, it takes, and I say right now it's pretty partisan, but it would take a Republican House, a Republican Senate with enough votes to get things through a filibuster, and a Republican President willing to take the heat from the deep state, from these actors, because they're going to fight hard. As we've seen in the past, Donald Trump has been indicted twice. He's been impeached twice. He's had additional special counsels investigating him. He's got it at the state level, at the federal level, and it all started because he fired Jim Comey, who, by the way, Hillary Clinton complained, rightfully complained about when he re-upped the investigation to her three days before the election and then closed it immediately, which looked like election interference to me of the Democrat side. So, again, there was widespread support to see him go in Washington until Donald Trump actually did it, and then it was like, oh, they made him out to be a saint. The same thing happened with Peter Strzok, where they became martyrs of the left. Here's your contract from MSNBC or CNN.

Here you go. Even though they were literally utilizing their position of power to abuse Americans. So we know it's happening, Logan. I mean, we don't really need more evidence.

There's another horror story after another horror story. What we need is people to take that, internalize it, and then go get their friends to vote and make sure we actually have a Congress and a President who is willing to make the changes necessary. It's going to be really hard to take down this bureaucracy and reform it, but we can do it.

It's just we have to be committed to doing it. And these are the issues I feel like are important that hopefully get talked about, hopefully get talked about more in this political season that comes up, because it always frustrates me. I know that these are kind of complex.

I know these are hard topics. They're not as rah-rah, politician kind of topics, which is we need reform within the IRS, and here's why, and here's how they're targeting people. It does come up, but it's almost like the Supreme Court. It often gets kind of forgotten in the political campaigns. These are the kind of things you need to listen for and actually look at who you're looking at for candidates, because it's one of the more important moments in our life.

It's one of the more important moments in terms of the way this is all crumbling and people are seeing it. For the first time, you actually, everyone's always made jokes about the IRS. No one likes the IRS showing up. No one likes the IRS in general.

No one wants to pay their taxes in general, just because it's one of those most complicated, annoying things you have to deal with in your life that every April, you know it's coming and you can feel it coming. The ads start showing up on TV and you start freaking out. But this is for the first time I feel like in our life where it's become national news that there is this real corruption that's going on, that there are whistleblowers coming out saying this is what's happening inside of this bureaucracy. Hopefully that means there'll be some change, but I do think people lose a little bit of hope in that.

Yeah, and again, what I think you have to realize is when there's strength in numbers, with the Tea Party cases, it's like the more people who do speak out together, the more power you have. In groups like the ACLJ, we can come in and support you. So again, if you feel like this is happening to you, because I feel like if this agent's acting this way, either he's done it multiple times before in Ohio and other people like him may be following a similar role. Hey, use a fake name. Use a way to gain entry to the home. Then try to get them to fill out pressure into the paperwork and then get very upset if they even question you or say, hey, can you handle this with my attorney instead of me directly? I've got an attorney, a tax attorney. I'd be happy to put you in contact with them so that if I do owe anything or if there's any issues here, we can handle it.

And they get upset with you? They file a complaint against local law enforcement because they got someone riding around in the streets using a fake name to get into people's homes? That's ACLJ.org. For those of you who feel like you may need legal assistance. And these matters, even like the issue here was done, there's still a lot of legal issues here that this individual could bring forward to expose the IRS and have some rights, some wrongs righted.

There could be financial damages in a situation like this. So contact us, ACLJ.org slash help. We come back, we're talking politics, new polls that have come out in the Republican race. Also, for those of you who may not have seen the video, the brutal video of our clients, pro-life clients in Baltimore who were attacked, we're going to show that for you for those of you watching the broadcast. Keeping you informed and engaged, now more than ever, this is Sekulow. And now your host, Jordan Sekulow.

All right, welcome back to Sekulow. We're taking your calls to 1-800-684-3110 to get into some politics as well. I do want to remind you, John Durham, and I do want to hear some answers from him, he is going to testify on a public hearing of the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday at 9 a.m. Eastern time about his report with all that wrongdoing, yet this inability to get convictions.

And I really want to hear from him because it took a very long time, way too long. So was it the Department of Justice was the problem? Like, was there a problem? Was it those bad actors in Washington who were not giving him the information he needed? But even though it's like when they did get the information they needed, they'd go to a jury and they'd get shot down immediately, so they weren't bringing very strong cases. And I think, again, it kind of undermined the idea that these are bad actors when you can't get any criminal convictions on them, even on basic things like lying under oath, lying to agents, lying to investigators. And so I do want answers from John Durham because he had this parade of horribles about how bad the agencies are, so it's either we don't have the right laws on the books to hold them accountable, or we just don't have the right prosecutors who are maybe still a little too friendly with their Washington, D.C. friends.

And so they're a little too loose and light on bringing these real charges. So that will be on Wednesday. I do want to show you this.

We played it Friday. If you're watching right now, it's graphic video. It shows the assault. You've seen the aftermath of what happened to our clients in Baltimore, pro-life sidewalk counselors.

We are on right now. There's a hunt underway for the attacker, the Baltimore police. We released an image for everybody that has been out to try to identify the attacker who they believe lives in Baltimore.

Baltimore PD has now released this video. You'll hear narration, by the way. That's narration. So if you're listening to the broadcast, stick with us. You'll hear the narration from the Baltimore Police Department about what you're watching. I do want to let you know, though, if you don't want to see this, you don't have to shut the show off. Just look away from your screen right now. It's only about a minute long.

Let's take a listen. After a heated conversation, the suspect tackles one of the victims into the ground. Another victim, who came to help, is then assaulted by the suspect. Anyone with information about the incident or the suspect is asked to call Central District Detectives at 410-396-2411. To remain anonymous, call Metro Crime Stoppers of Maryland at 1-866-7-LOCKUP.

You can also submit a tax tip by visiting the MCS Maryland website. So we, of course, are grateful. But listen, Baltimore Police Department, if you know anything about Baltimore, they're dealing with a lot of crime right now. It's, I think, in the top five most dangerous cities in the country. But they are taking this seriously. There's a federal side to this. We are working with them to say, where is the FBI on this matter?

Because, again, you flip the shoes here and you know they'd be all over it. But we want to make sure this person is arrested because, of course, we want to bring the criminal charges that they deserve. This person deserves to be behind bars for those violent attacks. But also the civil charges as well that they are liable for to our clients.

So I just wanted to kind of update you on that. That's, again, it shows you kind of work of the ACLJ and the kind of different work of the ACLJ. And in this case, dealing with all those different law enforcement agencies there to make sure a wrong, horrible wrong, is righted in the best way possible. Just to update you, one of our clients is going to have to have a metal plate put in their face from those charges. So they are going to have long-term health consequences.

That they're just getting started in the process of getting those things fixed and going through those multiple surgeries, getting their vision back. So, again, we are not going to stop fighting for justice there and we are grateful for all of you who stand with us and support the work of the ACLJ at ACLJ.org. We encourage you to donate today. That's why we're able to stand in, not just with the first day of the cases, you know, where it's hot in the news, but we stick with it until that person is captured behind bars and we can bring the civil case as well.

So donate today at ACLJ.org. When we come back, new polling in the Republican primary. We'll talk about the consequences and what it might mean.

Welcome back to Sekio. We are taking your phone calls too. Before we get to the polls, I want to get to one of those calls at 1-800-684-3110. Fred's calling in New York online too. Hey, Fred. Hi, how you doing? Thank you for taking my call.

Thank you. I just have a question. I heard you earlier saying that we need a Republican President, Congress and Senate. Now, even if we don't have all three, is there anything we could do to put some of these people behind bars? Yeah, I mean, listen, the executive branch alone, Congress doesn't have that ability, but a Republican President does have an ability to direct the Department of Justice to focus in, to put more resources on specific crimes.

So yes, you could do that. But you also have to have the people at the Department of Justice willing to bring the charges. I think that's one of the big problems even the Presidents face is that you're asking people within these departments to prosecute people they work with, their friends, their allies. So that's why in like the Durham case when he brought forward the Clinton attorney and he uses the witness, the general counsel from the FBI, the general counsel from the FBI was like, he wasn't lying to me. I already knew who he was. He didn't need to tell me all this information. It wasn't like he came in here under false pretenses and that was it.

Case dismissed. So you got to have a reform not just of when that Republican President, let's say they get in, they have to put in really good people. I'm not just talking about the director of the FBI or the attorney general of the United States. I'm talking thousands of really good people in those agencies. They have the ability to do it but what Republicans run into a lot is that they don't have as many people to hire. There's not as many people that want those jobs.

There's a lot of people that want the top jobs but that want the day-to-day jobs. You've got to be ready to go on that. We've actually worked with the Heritage Foundation on this new hiring guide that any Republican President can utilize. It's going to be this database of like 25,000 plus different resumes of people that have been vetted by organizations like us. And so you know that, again, you're not going to know all these people individually.

You're going to have to put some trust. So they've gone through a process. That's one way to do it, Fred. That does still take electoral victories. Congress can, again, has the power of the purse so they can hold up money.

They can also expose. But if you actually want to see the total reform done, you really do need the executive branch. Which leads me to the next thing, the Republican primary and the polls in the Republican primary. Pretty new, stunning poll out. This was from Harris Poll.

So let me pull this up because this one, again Logan, what it is showing is that Donald Trump keeps adding to his number. He's now basically in every poll is at least showing him at 60%. Yeah, I was in the state of Florida for the last two weeks. And what I'll tell you is the first week I was there, it was a lot of DeSantis coverage. People were talking about it still. It was big in the news. And then really once the situation happened in Miami, the news shifted significantly on a local level.

Once you saw him showing up to things, to obviously be arraigned, but then later on at the Versailles restaurant in Miami, the tone started to shift more people. And what I don't really get, and I see this from my friends on the left who are on social media, is they just don't understand the voter at all in terms of how they react. And they don't understand that yes, could there be things that could take down a President Trump from this? Sure.

And that could be a legal situation, like legally disqualified if that was even a thing. There's no such thing. Beyond that, the supporter sees corruption and they're responding to, it almost just goes, yeah, I told you this is how it was going to be.

So here it is. So nothing sways that, nothing changes that. Whether you like that or not, whether you want to admit that or not, the base voter for the Trump campaign, for the Trump supporters, are not going to be swayed. In fact, they're going to be more enraged when they see this type of thing happen. So I'm not shocked, as someone who just spent a few weeks in Florida, to see that bump happen.

And honestly, to see- Just go down. I'm not that shocked- He's gone down. He's lost about 10 points in the polls now. And the problem is, and some of it is this, is that even in Florida, the local news, let's say I was in the Orlando area, is still pretty liberal bias news.

Definitely pro-Disney. And they're definitely showcasing, especially in the month of June, showcasing a distaste for DeSantis. That that is part of the narrative being told, even if they know the majority of their voters voted for him. So it's interesting to see, because it was almost like watching real-time hit pieces on DeSantis, and then the coverage of the Trump situation, which was a little bit less hardcore. It was more like, look at the supporters following him. Look at what's happening here. Look at the carnival, the circus that follows, whether you liked it or not. So it was interesting to see that play out locally.

I also can be honest, I drove around Central Florida quite a bit. I saw very little public display of DeSantis. I saw- I think I saw Osticker. The week before you, I saw one. Yeah, I think I saw the same thing. I think I saw one.

I was like, this is in his home state. That's what I mean. And I didn't see Trump stuff either.

I just saw nothing. And I know we're still quite a ways out, but you'd even think there'd be some remnants of DeSantis stuff from his election a year and a half ago. Yeah. And that's not even there. Not even a year and a half ago.

A year ago. So that was fascinating to kind of watch locally while I was there to see if people were really engaged in what was happening. And truthfully, just wasn't there. It's also how the candidates have been responding. Other than Chris Christie and Asa Hutchinson, who are not going to be the Republican nominees.

And I would tell that to them to their face. They shouldn't even be running. But everybody can run. If they want to run, that's fine.

Again, I don't even know if they'll get enough percents to get on the debate stage. But they're running to be the anti-Trump's. Then you have the others who basically all came out and said, this is wrong. But now you're starting to get them saying it was wrong that he was prosecuted, but also wrong what he did. And I'm not sure that line is going to fly with people. Because you already came out and told them, you wrote these big tweets about how this is political persecution and wrong. And then you're now trying to come out and say, but what they did charge you with is horrendous. So I don't know if you can have your cake and eat it too on that issue. You kind of get stuck with the Vivek Ramaswamy thing where he's like, are you not going to pardon him if you became President?

Horrendous. Joe Exotic said he won't pardon him because he didn't pardon him. Is he running again from prison? It does remind you you can run from prison.

Yeah, I guess that's true. What happens if you pardon yourself? You get out.

Good to know. Just to have in your back pocket. Run from President. So if you're in prison right now, why wouldn't you? Why wouldn't you run?

From the state charges you can't. Oh, that's true. I found it pretty fascinating to watch. But we'll see.

You were what? We're six weeks away from the eight weeks away or so from Paul and from the first debate. It's got to be in August. So we're probably eight weeks-ish away. I don't know the exact date. Are they, has Trump committed to doing them?

Have they, anyone committed to doing them yet? I don't know that we've got any commitments on the debate. I'm just curious. And who's running that debate? It's the R.C. debate. It's in Milwaukee, which is where they've got to be booking the moderators and all that though now, like all that stuff should start coming out.

And that I think will really also kind of, those are things that are interesting to me. It's like, well, who agrees to do it? Who doesn't agree to do it? Remember, Trump didn't even do all the debates in 2016.

He picked to choose. Yeah. So we'll see.

Yeah. And I think, again, it's going to get tons of attention because the Democrats are, as much as they'd like to see some debates and things like that, it's probably not going to happen. So long as RFK users at 20%. If he gets, what's interesting to me is that President Trump has got about the same poll numbers as Joe Biden inside his own party. That's pretty wild because he's not the incumbent President. And some people said, oh, I'm sick of him. But I mean, when you start getting to the 60 percentile, yes, you have to look at the states and states are going to be different than national polls. But if one of these candidates doesn't break through and win a couple of those, then they can't raise the money necessary because why would you write them checks?

You feel like you're writing a check to nothing. And I will tell you, to take on Donald Trump, you're going to need a giant campaign inside the Republican Party. A very expensive campaign.

You'll probably have to raise much more money than he will have to raise because look at what he does. On a day he's arraigned, he dominated the news from noon. Well, they were talking about it even before. But literally, there was a camera on him or his airplane or his car from noon until he gave a speech in primetime.

Right, in the evening. Yeah, I was out at a restaurant. Everyone was seemingly popping on their phones and looking at what's happening right now. Because the whole going to Versailles, the restaurant and all that, that sort of became the local story in Florida.

Oh, yeah. Because it was like, look at this. Who else could just be like, everyone follow me here. It's like being at Comic-Con. Everyone follow me here and let's party. It's such a Donald Trump move that it was really interesting to watch.

And watch people around me reacting to it. Rick Cardell was in last week and Rick had just come straight from Bedminster when he came here. Which was supposed to be the President's birthday party. And turned into the speech the day before his birthday was the arraignment. And he said, yes, a birthday that is.

But we talked about the idea of two, like how many people can pull that off even mentally? Yeah. Like you just went through three hours of a very unpleasant process.

Yeah, for anyone. It doesn't matter if you're the President or a common criminal. You've been arraigned. You've had to be fingerprinted. You've been in these courthouses for two plus hours. You haven't said a word. You spend your entire day doing this.

And then you have the energy to show up in Versailles, do a mini-campaign event there, and then give an hour and a half address to the nation about it. Most people don't have that in them. I mean, it doesn't matter if they're 77 or 27. They just don't have that fight in them.

So I think the poll also reflects that. This guy is a fighter. Things seem horrendous. And it seems like the only way to turn things around is somebody who can get on the phone with Vladimir Putin. Who can get on the phone with Chairman Xi and tell him to knock it off. Or else.

And not have to have these big spats where there's actual missiles flying and people actually being killed. We'll take your calls. Your thoughts. 1-800-684-3110. What do you think about that poll? It's with Donald Trump at 60%. We'll be right back. Alright, welcome back to Seq. We are taking your calls to 1-800-684-3110. That's 1-800-684-3110. There's a lot going on too with China right now.

And I want to play the sound from Tony Blinken. Remember, this is after China cancelled many meetings for Tony Blinken. So we basically had to beg to get this. So I think that they had only met in Alaska face to face. And they had since then maybe had some phone calls.

But then even the phone calls have stopped. And this was because, well the Chinese said it was because we shot down their spy balloon. Which they claim wasn't a spy balloon. Which is typical of them. It's like they aren't responsible for the virus. But in another, what feels like a statement of weakness. Especially all that tough talk around Taiwan.

That we've heard of this build up. We're sending all these weapons to Taiwan. All this military equipment to Taiwan. Listen to this and think about how you'd feel if you're Taiwan right now.

You'd probably feel like you're Ukraine. But actually not like Ukraine where they're willing to send in every single dime we have to defend Ukraine. What about Taiwan where we actually do have US assets like all of our chip manufacturing coming out of Taiwan.

Take a listen to Blinken. On Taiwan, I reiterated the long standing US one China policy. That policy has not changed. It's guided by the Taiwan Relations Act, the three joint communiques, the six assurances. We do not support Taiwan independence. We remain opposed to any unilateral changes to the status quo by either side. We continue to expect the peaceful resolution of cross-strait differences. We remain committed to meeting our responsibilities under the Taiwan Relations Act, including making sure that Taiwan has the ability to defend itself.

Why? I say instead of having a war, just give it to China. That sounds like what the policy is here.

I would like to get our manufacturing out of there first, but if that's what we're going to do, let's get our chip manufacturing out of there. Spend the next year doing that instead of sending them weapons because if they were defending themselves and their independence, I guess why would we be funding that? Well, you ask a brilliant question, which Secretary Blinken cannot answer. Secretary Blinken and the Biden administration is immersed in incoherence. They do not know what they're doing, and I think China recognizes that.

Meanwhile, China is creating an alternative currency with the BRICS countries, which include Brazil, Russia, and South Africa, thus weakening long-term U.S. borrowing capacity on world markets. So I think the Blinken to China trip accomplished very, very little. We did not get transparency on COVID-19 and its origins, which virtually every American believes came from a Chinese lab. We didn't get clarity, for instance, with respect to China's attempt to spy on the United States and the West with their facilities in Cuba. And so I think all in all, this was a waste of a trip, and Secretary Blinken is trying to ensure the American people that they accomplish something when they accomplish very, very little. Lastly, I would say that it's very likely that the United States and China will not see an improvement in relations until the United States gets a strong and stable leader.

Biden is not that. It's important to point out that China, after this meeting, has still refused communication to resume between our militaries. You are not in a stable relationship. Even if your adversary is financially and you've got some different ideas about different countries around the world in conflicts, the fact is if you can't have your secretary of defense get on the phone with their minister of defense, you have a serious problem. Because if mistakes are made on the battlefield and they are made, especially as we've seen these planes get close together, vessels get close together, that's why you need communication. Because you make sure that that doesn't occur and some accident doesn't turn into a war. But right now, as it stands, they will not allow their top military to speak to ours.

Absolutely. It makes little sense. Meanwhile, President Biden apparently is prepared to apologize for shooting down Chinese balloons that have invaded American airspace. In addition, there's very little progress with respect to the Russia Ukraine war, which China tacitly supports Russia in this initiative. And I think at the end of the day, we will increasingly see signs that the Ukrainian ability to defend itself, notwithstanding all of the weaponry that the West has sent, is cratering. So I think long term, it's not a pretty picture for the United States' support in Ukraine or our relationship with China. Yeah, I mean, try to understand this one, Logan, just to read these two comments and try to explain it to American people. We do not support Taiwan independence.

We are committed to making sure that Taiwan has the ability to defend itself. Yeah, just that back to back doesn't make any sense. Why? Why am I spending billions of dollars? And why have a war? Well, it's just here's the first line that we have to say. And here's another line that we feel like we have to say. Instead of taking one side or the other, we are going to kowtow to both, which is, we really want to support Taiwan. However, we know we can't say anything bad about China because they control our lives. I mean, this is the easy explanation to it, but it's the sad explanation. Biden gave his excuse for the spy balloon.

Take a listen. But I don't think the leadership knew where it was. I knew what was in it. I knew it was going on.

Do you think- God save the queen. Yeah, right. Do you think in a country, we should get to that in the podcast. I think it was on the stage in, was it Massachusetts, Connecticut, or Rhode Island, I don't know, somewhere.

No connection. There was a second amendment. There was a gun control line.

Anti-gun events. But on this one, he's given them covers saying like, if you're a major superpower, Harry, and you're going to launch what could become a very public spy operation on the other superpower, there is no way that your top leaders aren't briefed on that. Well, President Biden again demonstrates his confusion. I believe that the Chinese leaders know precisely what espionage capability the balloons were capable of. Biden's failure to understand simple spying suggests that he is incompetent as a leader, and the American people will perhaps have a choice going forward in 2024 with respect to Biden's competence. I think the Chinese have already reached their own conclusion.

Yeah. I mean, I think it's, again, we'll keep an eye on this too, this idea that after all this trip, there's still no communication. I think what we have to do is get this manufacturing as quickly as possible out of places like Taiwan. It doesn't mean we're trying to abandon them as an ally and clarify our stance and maybe this whole idea of this one China policy, but we also are going to go to war or fund a war against China for invading a country that we say is, I guess, is part of theirs, and they should negotiate their independence and sovereignty away. Is that what we're really encouraging Taiwan to do? Because it doesn't seem like that when we send our leaders over there. I don't hear them say, we're encouraging you to give up your independence and sovereignty because we're sending you fighter jets to defend. So again, be honest with the American people, be honest with the world, be a superpower, be a leader. And in the meantime, let's get that manufacturing of chips either to another country that is more supportive of the US and a safer position or right here in the United States of America so that we're not reliant on Taiwan if, in fact, the Chinese do get their way and we let them negotiate some control.

Do you really want them to be in charge of all that manufacturing that powers everything from your phone to all the technology at your home? We also have a lot more to talk about today, so check out our Secular Brothers podcast later on this afternoon at 4 p.m. Eastern time. Wherever you get your podcast, you can tune in and watch that as well. Support the work of the ACLJ at ACLJ.org. We'll talk to you tomorrow.