A HOUSE DIVIDED: Gaetz Plots to Oust Speaker McCarthy

Today on Sekulow, a house divided.

Matt Gaetz plots to oust Speaker McCarthy as soon as today. 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. Alright, welcome to Sekulow.

We're taking your phone calls to 1-800-684-3110. A lot happening on Capitol Hill this morning amongst Republicans, Democrats as well. Just emerged from behind a closed door meeting where the leader of the Democrats, Hakeem Jeffries, said that there was a Democrat support and unity to potentially either make a deal or oust Speaker McCarthy. So I think this is a situation unfortunately set up by Matt Gaetz unless, and again maybe we'll be surprised, that if Speaker McCarthy goes, Democrats got something. If Speaker McCarthy stays, Democrats got something. In a Republican controlled house where that didn't have to happen.

They're going to get more power either way at this point. Now Speaker McCarthy is taking a more hardline approach at saying, I'm not making deals with Democrats and they haven't proposed any deals. And I don't care if they propose any deals, we'll just take a vote and I'll deal with it as it goes. So I don't think he wants to be seen as the person who has bowed down to Democrats to keep the Speaker position. But would Matt Gaetz at this point give power over to the minority party just to see McCarthy go? Matt Gaetz isn't going to be the Speaker of the House. It's going to be another person from leadership. I think the person they're talking about is currently the majority whip to Kevin McCarthy. Not someone who's going to be very different. Look up Tom Emmers. Google him. See if he seems very different from Kevin McCarthy.

I think the only difference is he seems a bit older. And maybe less in control, less of a name in Washington D.C. And you start wondering how's he going to keep control of a House conference that has been, obviously he hasn't done a great job as majority whip because he wasn't able to prevent this from happening. I think, again, if either way right now I see it, unless McCarthy stays without having to make any kind of deals with Democrats, Gaetz can't win without Democrats. So he will be giving power over to Democrats.

So you think he's so conservative, what's he going to give over to them? And then McCarthy gets put in this position where what ends up happening here, I think, again, either way, Democrats end up with more power. You all might not like hearing it, but I don't think there's, because of this, they set the ball rolling here and they're going to have to have a vote. And unless Republicans figure this out real quick that, hey, we're in the majority, barely, so let's not give anything over to the Democrats right now. I think the danger that what Matt Gaetz has done here is, in any way it goes, it emboldens the Democrats.

Well, it's not only is it personal, it's coming 12 months before general election, it's coming three months before the primary and caucus season starts. So you look at all of that and you say, what is the end game here for the Republicans? How does this advance a conservative agenda? And it doesn't in our view.

Now, a lot of you may think this is great that, you know, and you're supporting Matt Gaetz in this. I'm not, we're not. We think it's a mistake.

We're taking your calls on it at 1-800-684-3110, 800-6843-110. There's a lot of issues that we're dealing with on the congressional level, especially when it comes to oversight. And we represent these whistleblowers. And the last thing we need right now, quite frankly, is dysfunction in the House of Representatives.

And we've got clients that will be directly impacted by this dysfunction. Yeah, Imanu Roger from CNN, who was outside of the Democrats' closed-door meeting where they weren't even allowed to take their phones in, said that every Democrat I've spoken to has come out of the meeting and said they are ready to sink McCarthy. The leadership wants to have a consensus position. Jeffries, who's the Democrat leader, will soon put out a statement. McCarthy's speakership, very much in doubt. That was at 1018 Eastern Time. There is no way, though, they're going to do this without getting something in return.

They're not going to sink McCarthy for nothing. I do need to say a thank you. 80 of you yesterday, and I think it's more than that now, became ACLJ champions. That means you are giving a monthly gift to the ACLJ. You're a champion for life, a champion for liberty, and a champion for freedom with your monthly gifts to the ACLJ. I would like to continue adding 50 to 80 a day. That's our goal, so that we could double our recurring donations.

That is, people that are standing with us. We want you to become a champion. Go to ACLJ.org slash champions and sign up for recurring donations.

It makes a huge difference, whatever the amount is. ACLJ.org slash champions. We'll be back with more in a moment. Alright, welcome back to SECU. We are going to take your calls for this too.

1-800-684-3110. So last night at 7 p.m. Eastern Time, Matt Gaetz, the congressman from Florida, put forward his privilege motion. This was the motion to vacate, which Kevin McCarthy agreed to to finally get enough votes to become speaker. And that only has to be seconded by one other person to then become a privilege motion under Clause 2 of the House of Representatives. That does not mean it has to be taken up immediately, but it does only give two legislative days after the chamber has given notice of the motion. So likely that's in the next couple of days.

Maybe that goes to a third day, depending on the timing of when that was filed yesterday, but likely today or tomorrow. To remove the speaker just takes a majority vote. So Republicans could do it on their own, but it's unlikely. In fact, right now there's only a handful of Republicans who have even said they are backing the removal of Matt Gaetz.

And there's a group who have said, that have actually come forward, that they are supporting him, including some very conservative members like Byron Donald and Chip Roy, Ralph Norman of South Carolina, Keith Self of Texas. And then you've got some undecideds who are kind of just waiting to see where things kind of stand after this initial discussion. I think what people are concerned about here is how do Democrats not win either way?

Let me just explain that. There's never going to be a majority, I don't think there's going to be a majority of Republicans to do either of this. So you will have to have some Democrat support. And the Democrats said they're only going to do this unified, which means they're going to want something. Well they've already said, this is what the House Rules Committee ranking member Jim McGovern from Massachusetts said, I'm not a cheap date. So for McCarthy to stay in leadership, or for anybody to stay in leadership, but really, let's be honest, you're going to have to cut a deal with the Democrats. Why would Republicans do this?

What's the endgame for this? And I think about the cases we have right now involving these whistleblowers, or the oversight with all those cases that we have going on. And the idea that they would just sit and do this is absurd, frankly. Listen to this, just the reality of this. Kevin McCarthy was just asked by a correspondent, I asked McCarthy if he needs the help of Democrats. He said, well if five Republicans go with Democrats, then I'm out. And the person says that looks likely. Say that again. So five Democrats go with the Republicans, and McCarthy is out.

Now that's including all Republicans. I don't know that that's going to happen either. I mean there's a lot of what-ifs here. The bizarre part is, Kevin McCarthy kind of has the decision point on when to call for this vote over the next two days. Does he kind of call their bluff immediately and say show your cards right now? Like let's take the vote in an hour? Or does he spend the next two days trying to work this out?

If I was him, I'm leaning towards make him take the vote right now. Don't let him talk anymore. No more time talking. Yeah, I think the strategy is to get this, well first of all you need to get over it because they've got important business to handle. Yeah, especially since they only kept the government open for another, well now we're up to 73 days I think. I mean, again, the American people as a whole must- Who needs this? This makes Congress look like a joke. The leadership of the conservative movement look like a joke, unorganized, and you're letting four Republicans hold the entire Congress hostage. And Matt Gaetz is doing this, you know, on his high horse.

I mean, give me a break, okay? And this is a nonsensical move when you've got serious oversight, you've got hearings over the Hunter Biden matter, you've got to quote a supposed impeachment inquiry, which is almost like a joke at this point. And then you can't even keep the House running. Let's go ahead and take calls coming- The American people didn't give the Republicans an overwhelming majority in the House. Five seats, folks.

Why are we playing with fire here? There's a five-seat majority in the House of Representatives that was supposed to be 40. So instead we're going to blow the Congress up over this? And we don't have the Senate, so I mean- No, and you'll end up getting nothing. And you won't have the White House. So then let me tell you what you're going to have, everybody.

The Democrats will have more power in the House, so you're going to have a stronger minority Democrat in the House, Democrats controlling the Senate, and a Democrat in the White House. And by the way, this is the reason why at the ACLJ we have a government affairs office, because our team has already- and we're holding it. We know the motion to vacate procedure is probably better than the Congress knows it at this point. Because of James Ruckus's team up in Washington putting this together on what's going to happen. And our team's working on this. To not let the Congress implode here.

It just doesn't help anybody. So again, understand the nature, we're right in the middle of this one too. Let's go ahead, we've got a lot of calls coming in, 800-684-3110. The two kind of likelihoods here is that the most likelihood is that this motion will be taken up at 1.30pm Eastern Time today. The other motion that could proceed this is a motion to adjourn for like 24 hours. The issue there is that members of Congress, as it gets later in the week, head home.

And so less members are there to potentially vote, which causes issues too, because it's a majority vote of who's in- who's there that day and who can actually vote. So again, 1-800-684-3110. Let's go to Jerry in Rhode Island first on Line 1.

Hey Jerry. Hey gang, you guys are telling us how it could happen. Let's pontificate and explore why is Gates doing this.

We saw this from the 15 votes. They had a plan to be able to do this. What is his reasoning? What are those five Republicans, what are they standing on as the reason for this? I think their most reason is they think that McCarthy hasn't gotten enough done. Now I mean, McCarthy is the Republican Speaker of the House, he's very powerful, but guess what? The Democrats control the Senate and the White House, so they can pass whatever legislation they want and the Senate's going to reject it.

So you have to make a lot of compromises to get anything through, if you want to get anything done. So these are the hardliners that want to shut down the government, that want to, again, think that they could somehow, they're going to get more out of Democrats by making a deal with Democrats. You think they're going to build a wall? You think they're going to spend more money on the border because they now have more power? You think they're going to really crack down on fentanyl and violent crime in America? You think they're going to figure out the economy? You think they want to lower your taxes?

No. This is a dangerous move by young members of Congress who don't really understand the structures. Maybe you all don't like it. Maybe we all think this is a mess of a structure.

But that's how our founding fathers intended it to be. And unfortunately, Speaker McCarthy had to agree to this to even get the Speakership. Usually it took much more than one person to bring a vote like this, even to force a vote like this. But what I am scared of is that the Matt Gaetzs of the world are not principled conservatives enough, that they're too personal about this, that they will make deals with Democrats just to look tough by getting the ouster of Kevin McCarthy. Because they don't actually care about conservative policies.

They care about themselves. There are four Republicans supporting this right now on the record. That's Tim Burchette of Tennessee, Eli Crane of Arizona, Bob Goode of Virginia, and Matt Gaetzs. That's it.

Those four, and then you ignore the other 215 Republicans because it almost doesn't matter at this point. And this is reality. So if McCarthy had to cut a deal with the Democrats, he will be beholden to the Democrats and they've already said we're not going to be a cheap date meeting. We're expecting things in return. Why are we doing this? This is absurd. This did not have to happen. No, it did not have to happen. And you know, let's get, you know, we deal with, people can deal with, you know, what they would like the world to look like, or you could deal with what the world actually looks like.

And here's what the world actually looked like. We have a five vote majority in the House of Representatives. We don't control the United States Senate. We do not control the White House.

And we do a majority of conservatives on the Supreme Court. They couldn't bring an impeachment vote in the House because they couldn't get enough Republican votes to impeach Biden. We shouldn't even open the inquiry.

Honestly, there is not really an inquiry. Right, because they didn't vote. They could not get the votes to do one. Yeah, and we argued, by the way, that you had to do that by congressional vote. So this idea that you're having an inquiry when you really don't have the votes for it, in our view, is nonsense.

So we want to deal with the reality and keep things moving. You want to take another call before the break? Sure.

Again, it's 1-800-684-3110. John in New York online too. Hey, John.

Hey, how you doing? Hey, the only concern I have is a guest gets his way. Oh, he dropped out. He was talking about what wrenches can be thrown in. What, potentially, all you can really do is delay this. And we're talking about delaying it like a day or two. That's it. I mean, they're planning on having the vote in the next couple hours, Will.

Two o'clock Eastern Time. I mean, he'd have to withdraw the motion. That's the only thing. Gates withdrawing the motion or McCarthy delaying this maybe a day or two. Listen, folks, we've got a lot of action happening in courts around the country. We also have a lot of action happening in the United States House of Representatives.

I need them functioning. We've got whistleblowers that have put their careers on the line here for the American people. You don't think Matt Gates should be the Speaker of the House? No. I'd love to hear you call in and actually make a good case for that. Matt Gates should be the Speaker of the House? No, you don't.

Yeah, I'd like to hear that if somebody has an argument for that. 1-800-684-3110. We've got people that we represent before the House of Representatives. So this is very serious stuff.

But let me tell you something. Our Office of Government Affairs is on top of it. As I said, James Rokas and the team up there have put together memos that we're already using.

We're not only monitoring the situation, we're trying to influence the situation. This is where you come in. We're able to do this month after month because we have a group of donors. There's 15,000 of you now, and I need to say there's 15,080 because yesterday we picked up 80 new ACLJ champions. What is an ACLJ champion? It's a new program that we've announced yesterday. It's if you make recurring monthly gifts each month to the ACLJ in any amount, you become a champion of life, a champion of liberty, and a champion of freedom. And we're asking you to become a champion for the ACLJ today.

Your monthly donations, let me give you just a quick rundown. 14th Amendment cases involving President Trump. We're representing Charlie Kirk and TPUSA in the attempt to silence them on social media. The whistleblowers, as we've been talking about. We just filed our brief in the abortion pill case at the Supreme Court of the United States.

We have religious liberty cases for prayer around the country, protecting Israel and defending persecuted Christians globally. Become a champion. Go to ACLJ.org slash champions. That's ACLJ.org slash champions. Become a recurring member of the ACLJ. Do it today.

Back with more in a moment. I've been on Newsmax twice before the broadcast today talking about that. Yesterday, I took a turn at the end. Smiling judge again this morning. Loving the cameras coming in, which is, again, this is supposed to be, again, someone who's calling the balls and strikes and not taking positions and favoring.

He's loving this moment. Usually, that backfires on those kind of judges and it did, at the end of the day, yesterday, backfired on the Attorney General of New York, Letitia James, when the judge said, well, this witness who's been for the prosecution that he brought in, it's all wonderful what he said, except for none of it's relevant because it's all after the statute of limitations. So unless he's got any information within the statute of limitations, please don't bring him in tomorrow to have him talk about nothing. So even the judge who didn't look like he's very, and he is not a fan of Donald Trump, still, you know, is bound by the law and statute of limitations. And so if that's the first witness they had to call, that's who they thought was their strongest witness.

This former accountant who had gone through the Trump records in Mazars, again, not a good start. For a Democrat AG before a Democrat elected judge in New York State Court. So the Appellate Division in New York, which the way it works in New York is the trial court is the Supreme Court.

I mean, it's kind of the opposite. Then they have the Appellate Division, which is the Intermediate Appeals Court, and then they have the Court of Appeals in Albany, which is basically the Supreme Court. The Appellate Division in Manhattan decided this summer that Letitia James could not sue for transactions that occurred before July 13th, 2014, or February 6th, 2016, depending on who the defendants were. The judge yesterday said at the end of the trial, as Jordan mentioned, this was, quote, a waste of time.

And unless you can tie this into something within the statute of limitations, don't bring this witness back. Now, this is also a judge who said he doesn't just decide cases based on the law, he also decides them based on emotion. Am I following the law or am I making law? Okay, I'm following law. I'm an impartial referee, but it's hard to factor out my own emotions.

And I have tools. Because somebody can say, well, Your Honor, you have to throw out this case because it's just like another case. Well, is it just like another case? What if the defendant was wearing a red sweater instead of a blue sweater? Well, if he was wearing a red sweater instead of a blue sweater and the crime was you can't wear a red sweater, that may be one thing. But if the person was just wearing a red sweater and blue sweater, you know what that means, judge? And this is pretty scary, judge. Nothing.

Zero. Let me make it even clearer. You can't do that. You're the judge. Now, I've had this happen in federal court with a judge who went on a TV program that I was debating my client's position. I went on the TV program, this was years ago, and the judge is the other guest. Well, the next day I walked in and said, you know, Your Honor, with due respect, you can't hear this case. And I ended up getting him recused. I mean, and the idea that this judge is going to be governed by emotions?

You talk about election interference, folks, you realize what's going on here. By the way, the ACLJ files in Oklahoma on a 14th Amendment Section 3 disqualification case, which is now the latest rage of the left to try to get Trump off the ballot. We file our motion to intervene. The plaintiff withdraws his lawsuit. I think it was within, what, three hours?

Within three hours. Now, we've got one in West Virginia. We've got a trial, supposedly, that's going to take place in Colorado. Those motions we filed now to get that dismissed. And then we filed in some others as well. And yesterday the Supreme Court told that same plaintiff, by the way, you don't get to bring a case up here.

And they threw it out. So we're winning these battles. But, folks, these are really battles. We're taking your calls at 1-800-684-3110, whether it's on the Trump trial, whether it's on the Matt Gaetz's move, which I think is just dangerous. We're taking your calls, 800-684-3110. We've opened up our phone line. Let's go ahead and take a call. Yeah, we go to Warren in Idaho on Line 4. Hey, Warren.

Hey, guys. Thanks for taking my call and hearing about the Trump thing. But the Matt Gaetz, he says all along that he isn't taking it personal. But he is acting like it's totally personal with anything that Kevin McCarthy does. And he's hamstringing the entire House of Representatives, especially the conservatives on the Republican side. All of the teams we've got that are doing investigations, it just hurts everything.

And I don't... Remember, those teams don't put forward... You know who put forward those, Chairman? Kevin McCarthy. You like Jim Jorman as Judiciary Chair? Thank Kevin McCarthy for that. You like that you have a weaponization committee?

Thank Kevin McCarthy for that, too. And that's the problem with all of you. By the way, Warren, those were very good points you made.

And that's the problem with all of us. You put all that in jeopardy with the new speaker. We have these whistleblowers that we're representing right now that folks... I can't... We're representing these people. Their life and liberty is on the line. They've told the truth. They've whistleblown on the IRS.

They've whistleblown on the Department of Justice. And we're going to let them dangle and hang. You know, just hang out there and see what happens while Matt Gaetz is frolicking through the United States Congress like this is some kind of joke.

This isn't a joke. This is the way government's supposed to function. That's why we're a Constitutional Republican. We have separation of powers and three branches of government. But it's also the reason why at the ACLJ we have an Office of Government Affairs in Washington, D.C. And let me just tell you something.

You've seen our... Many of you have seen our offices in Washington, D.C. We're about to expand them significantly. So we're going to get more into that probably early next year, give you more information about that. But we are making another major move in Washington, D.C. It's that important. In fact, Jordan and I are going to go up there later this month, meet with our staff, figure out what the next moves are on some of these issues because this is, folks, this is serious, serious stuff.

But that's where you come in. And I got to say again a gigantic thank you to the over 80 of you, probably now 110 of you, that became ACLJ champions yesterday. With this new program we've unfolded, it's our recurring monthly gift. So you become an ACLJ champion when you support the work of the ACLJ. You become a champion for life, a champion for liberty, a champion for freedom, and you're helping cases literally around the globe. And we see around the globe, I mean, look at the issues that we're fighting for. We're fighting for issues on the 14th Amendment cases we just talked about. We're about to file a major lawsuit for Charlie Kirk and TPUSA. We're representing those whistleblowers on Capitol Hill. File the brief in the Supreme Court on the abortion cases, religious liberty cases in the United States and around the globe, defending Israel at international tribunals and defending persecuted Christians in places like Pakistan and Iran.

And that's where you come in. We want you to become a sustaining member, a monthly donor of the ACLJ and become a champion of life, liberty and freedom. You do that by going to ACLJ.org.

That's ACLJ.org slash champion. Donate now and then donate every month and you become a champion. This is a modest goal we're trying for. I'd like to add somewhere between 50 and 100 new ACLJ champions each day during the next 12 months. That will double the resources from that group, from our champions group, which will allow us to do a lot more in Washington and around the globe.

So we encourage you to do that. Jordan, politically, I want to get your sense of this before we go into the break. How dangerous is this, what Matt Gaetz is doing? Yeah, I think, again, it puts everything in jeopardy. You don't know who the next speaker necessarily will be. You don't know if they are going to move along with some of these committee chairs. You don't know, again, what they had to give to Democrats to get that position.

That's what concerns me the most. Matt Gaetz cannot get Democrat votes without promising something to Democrats. And I hope the Democrats would realize Matt Gaetz ain't going to be the speaker.

So I wouldn't make a lot of deals with him. Because either way, he's going to be the one guy. He can keep bringing up these motions. But he's not going to be the speaker. It's going to be someone similar to Kevin McCarthy, if it's not Kevin McCarthy. As if it's going to be someone who's now more hamstrung than Kevin McCarthy because they made deals with Democrats to get the position. And this is what these very conservative members of Congress are doing in Washington now? Making deals with Democrats so they can push out leaders they don't like and other Republicans? That's very conservative sounding. Making deals with the Democrats.

In this day and age, when they want to put you in jail for being a conservative. We'll be right back. Keeping you informed and engaged.

Now more than ever. This is Sekulow. And now your host, Jordan Sekulow. Welcome back to Sekulow. We are taking your calls.

1-800-684-3110. Two dominant issues, of course. They could be happening right after our broadcast today, which is a vote to remove, potentially, McCarthy as speaker of the House. And then a new speaker would be elected. I guess that simultaneously starts immediately?

Last time that took days. So again, there's a lot of discussion. Democrats supposedly support doing it, but they're not going to do it for nothing. They've been very clear about that. I mean, one, another Democrat from North Carolina, Congressman Nichols, said if they want Democrat votes, there's going to be a price to pay. So I mean, if Matt Gaetz gets these votes from Democrats, he's made deals with Democrats. They've gotten more power than they deserve because they're the minority party in Washington, D.C., in the House of Representatives. So you're going to give more power to the minority party, which is only a five vote majority, the Republicans have, to the party that also has the Senate and the White House. So anything you think that you'd like to get done that would be right on the edge of votes has no chance of moving forward if there's been a deal made with Democrats. McCarthy said he will not make a deal with Democrats.

He'd rather be voted out. Now we'll see who's telling the truth when all this, if it does come down to a vote this afternoon. McCarthy does have the ability to delay it a day or two, but that's it.

I mean, so unless it was withdrawn by Gaetz. So again, we will be watching this, of course, this afternoon and over the next couple days if it is delayed. I will go to the phones. We'll take calls. 1-800-684-3110. I know there's people mad at Kevin McCarthy, and I get a lot of those concerns.

Promises made, things like that. Helen's calling from Kansas on Line 6. Hey, Helen.

Hi. My husband and I are sick and tired of these rhinos stabbing us in the back like Kevin McCarthy, and somebody needs to stand up against them. Okay, so give me specific.

Where are they stabbing me in the back? What is he kept, what promises has he kept? He put a weaponization committee together in the United States House of Representatives that has never happened in U.S. history. He appointed Jim Jordan the chairman of the Judiciary Committee.

He's allowed the whistleblowers to come forward in a series of hearings that never would have happened before. So what has he done that you think is stabbing in the back? Well, he's been stabbing us in the back for years. About what? Helen, I'm not trying to be hard. I'm just trying to say about what?

Where did he stab you in the back? We have a five-house majority, a five-seat majority in the House of Representatives. It's very difficult. He's dealing with the Democrats. Well, you have to deal with the Democrats when you only have five members of the House of Representatives as a majority. Well, not like a Judas goat, you don't have to.

But you know what? You're making really bold statements, Helen, but here's what I'm asking you. Tell me, give me an example of where Kevin McCarthy has done something that has stabbed conservatives in the back.

Give me one example. President Trump was having all that trouble. What did he do? He stood with President Trump. Oh, he did not. There was, I can remember a report when he was trying to get President Trump to be quiet. I don't, you know, I represented the guy.

I don't even know what you're talking about. Yeah, I just, I don't, I think, again, if you can't point to any specifics, if you can't call someone a backstabber, I think I could give some more examples than she could of things that he hasn't gotten to completion yet. He's had a tough time, couldn't defund all the IRS, got some of the funding defunded. He got some of it delayed as well, but had to deal with the Democrat Senate and has, you know, we didn't get the Senate. So they couldn't send something to Biden without that, without any of that funding in it.

So they did try to delay a lot of that funding, hoping that the next election cycle they can get rid of some of, more of it. Things aren't perfect. I don't agree with Kevin McCarthy on everything.

I'm not like, I don't want to come out like that. It's just, I don't, when you call people Judas, and then you can't even give one example and you say, well that time he told President Trump to be quiet, but you don't know what time that was. This is what scares me about this political process. You guys have no idea what you're asking for and you're not going to like what you end up getting. That's very true.

What you're going to end up getting is the whole system shutting down. You've got to get Democrats controlling the House, even with a Republican speaker, because that's the only way Matt Gaetz wins. Say that again.

Democrats have to support what Matt Gaetz is doing, so whoever that speaker is, is beholden to the Democrats. Yeah, great move. Become an ACLJ champion so we can stay in this fight.

ACLJ.org slash champions. We'll start, continue to take your calls to 1-800-684-3110. That's 1-800-684-3110. I would add one more thing Kevin McCarthy did, which is unprecedented because it's not even clear if you can really do it, but he decided to at least take the risk of doing it, which is to allow an impeachment inquiry to begin without a full vote of the House of Representatives. So he let those committees begin that impeachment inquiry, even though there's a back and forth legally on whether or not you can do that without a full vote of the House.

And so again, he wasn't afraid of that either moving forward. So again, I get why somebody on the budget issues, on the spending issues, but Republicans are somewhat hamstrung by the fact that they don't have the Senate, have a small majority in the House, and they don't have the White House. Let's go ahead and take a phone call. Yeah, 1-800-684-3110. Let's go to Robert in Arizona online too.

Hey Robert. Yes, sir. My problem is I hear lawyers speak all the time about holding contracts accountable. If someone makes a contract, including a verbal contract, you people hold them accountable. McCarthy broke his contract with 15 votes to get his seat, but that's okay with you.

That's kind of weird. And the other thing is, how do they not have information to impeach Joe Biden? Joe Biden is on literal video holding American taxpayer dollars. Let's go back to what you said. They don't have the votes to even start an impeachment inquiry, Robert. That's not the point. No, that's exactly the point, because this is how government operates.

We've got a five-seat majority in the House of Representatives, and at the ACLJ, we have clients that have put their life on their line, their careers on the line, by becoming whistleblowers. And we're going to blow the Congress up over Matt Gaetz's comments, or his desire. So I'm not going to waste airtime on that part anymore, because it's ridiculous. Okay? It's ridiculous. Rick Grenell is joining us.

Yeah, Rick is, Joyce. This is another something that we have to prepare for as Republicans, because you've got the New York Times out as we get into election season, and the next election, and Rick, already the New York Times is preparing everyone for Russia interfering in the next U.S. election. They say Putin's next target is the U.S. support for Ukraine, and of course, so anybody that questions that must be being influenced by Russia. Look, I don't recommend anyone reading the New York Times.

I tweeted about this issue only because people were sharing the article with me. I don't pay for the firewall of the New York Times, but they made a total ridiculous lie today. If you look, and I screen grabbed it and put it on my Twitter feed, they literally tried to say that in the 2020 election, Russia was trying to help President Trump and was spreading misinformation and disinformation. I'm sorry, but the New York Times did that. They're the ones who told us that Hunter Biden's laptop was Russian disinformation, and it wasn't true.

They told us that the three weeks before the election, the intelligence officials, the anonymous intelligence officials that are quoted by the New York Times today are the exact people who duped America and did election interference. What has happened to the New York Times? This is ridiculous. It's outrageous, but yet it's so typical, and here we are every single day complaining about the media. It's time that we just start ignoring these people.

Yeah, I think that's the issue. This obviously is what they want to fall back on. If they lose anything, then they'll open up some impeachment inquiry because they believe it had to be the Russians. It can't possibly be that the American people would vote Democrats out of power, Rick. I mean, they just can't take that as an actual potential that U.S. voters on their own without being influenced by Vladimir Putin would say these Democrats need to go.

Let's also be clear about one thing. When the New York Times pushes these phony Russia, Russia, Russia messages, there's one country that's applauding, and that's China. China doesn't want us to look at them. They want everybody to look over there at Russia.

They love the fact that the New York Times and others were pushing the idea that Hunter's laptop was Russian disinformation because it was filled with all sorts of Chinese communist businessmen in bed with the Biden family. I mean, I think this whole idea, I think people have wised up to it a little bit more, this idea that, again, if you question anything about Ukraine, you're a Russian sympathizer. What most people are questioning about Ukraine is not supporting Ukraine. It's why is there no endgame on Ukraine? Why can't you tell us how you'd like this to come to an end, or do you see an end? And the only answer we get back from the White House lately has been from John Kirby has been, well, there's no U.S. troops there, so we don't really have to worry about endgame. Well, spending all this money there, and the interest rates here are going up, and the economy's tough in the U.S. People do worry about the spending, and they would like an endgame.

And also, it's not great to have war ongoing in Europe with Russia, and the potential for that to escalate at any moment because of even accidents. I want to go to another topic, though, Rick, because you're a Californian, and your governor has appointed the next U.S. senator to fill the seat of Dianne Feinstein, and it's someone who, maybe now, but as of yesterday when they were announced, was not a resident of California, did own property. There was a resident of Maryland and happens to be, of course, the former head of one of the largest political pro-abortion groups in the country. Yeah, look, there's so many people moving out of California that Gavin Newsom decided to give another state one of our senators because they needed more representation.

It's really atrocious. This individual, let's be very clear about something, was selected from a pool of only black women. He only considered black women, and he was really proud of it. I think that this, it's not too much to call this racism. It's racist to exclude people on the basis of their skin color. No Asians were considered, no Hispanics were considered, no whites were considered, no men were considered. Only black women. And this is the opposite of Dr. King's dream. Dr. King had a dream that we would all look at each other and not make any judgments or decisions according to skin color. And yet Gavin Newsom is really proud of the fact that he only considered black women, and we have all of the media in California that have really celebrated this move.

Everybody's giving aid and comfort to racism and sexism, and I find it to be embarrassing and atrocious, and it doesn't do this individual any favors when you're celebrated just because of being a black woman and being selected because you're a black woman. Rick, I also wanted to talk to you about President Trump and the trials ongoing in New York, his decision to at least attend the first couple days of trial. And things kind of shifted at the end of the first day of the trial when the judge who has made this kind of, I mean, made some ridiculous rulings earlier about the values of property, and that's been made clear, and I think that could ultimately sink a lot of this. But then also the fact that the attorney general who's prosecuting this case and her team of expert attorneys, they're the first witness they brought, which is usually supposed to be your best witness you've got, gave testimony all day yesterday. And the judge at the end of the trial, who's not a fan of Donald Trump at all, said this was a complete waste of time, so you better not do this again tomorrow because you just gave a bunch of information that's outside the statute of limitations that has no relevance to this case. And Latisha James' tone changed a lot yesterday when she had to talk to even the liberal media and kind of explain away what happened there.

Look, this whole crowd of manipulators for justice department officials, state prosecutors, judges that are left-wing, they all waited two and a half years to go after Donald Trump, and then they all came out guns-a-blazing with 91 charges. I think we all see exactly what this is. This is politics.

And when you look at Latisha James yesterday, it was politics. And the American people see that state politicians trying to revalue personal property is a real terrible thing, but if that's the new rule, don't hate the player in red states when red states decide to do this. This is the new rule that the Democrats have created, and red state politicians should start looking at revaluing properties if that's the new rule. I don't like it. I don't think it should be done, but if that's the rule, well, don't hate the player.

No, I think that has to be, I think, ended in this. People understand the difference. Do they really want their taxes based off, again, the tax value, which is what this judge was using, and the property tax value, things like that, or the real market value at the time? Most people would rather much pay the tax evaluator's evaluation of their property tax than they would real value at the time. And, again, talking about New York property itself, or Palm Beach property itself, talking about property that, I mean, goes up and down, but usually up over the times it sometimes hits moments, it just seems absurd.

But I think it was actually interesting to have President Trump be there, which is unique, and we got to see it just for a couple of minutes. Rick, we appreciate all of your insight into this, and, folks, we are asking you again, whether it's Rick Rinnell on the team, again, to become an ACLJ champion. It's how we continue to expand our work. It's how we're ready to fight all those 14th Amendment cases all over the country wherever we need to be, and those are fast-track cases. We're representing Turning Point USA, the whistleblowers in Congress.

These are not inexpensive cases to take on. So we need you to become an ACLJ champion today. Go to ACLJ.org slash champions. Become a recurring donor at whatever amount you're comfortable with at ACLJ.org slash champions. We'll be right back taking your calls.

Alright, welcome back to Sekio. We're taking your calls. 1-800-684-3110.

That's 1-800-684-3110. I was on Newsmax twice today already talking about the trial of President Trump, the civil trial in New York. As that all goes, so we'll keep covering that too on this broadcast as well as there's new information there.

We do have some calls about that too coming in. Michael in New Hampshire on Line 1. Hey, Michael.

Good afternoon, gentlemen. I'm going to make two quick points. One, the rule the judge used to make the valuations for Trump's property, which in my opinion was arbitrary or capricious, amounts to a taking under the 5th Amendment. And two, you're all talking about lawfare and that's great, but you've got to understand it's deeper than this.

It's called the three warfares. Now, I'm not going to explain it, but Rick Grenell probably knows what I'm talking about. Well, let me say this about the issues when you're talking about the 5th Amendment taking. So you're right in the sense that undervaluing, which this judge is doing, and the value of the properties should be based on actually appraisals and what real estate experts say, including the appraisers from Palm Beach County who said that the judge's numbers were totally wrong and they were quoting lots that were $100 million in Palm Beach County. So you're right. It's not an unconstitutional taking in the sense that there is at least purportedly due process. It could become an unconstitutional taking if that process that was given during the trial is not the equivalent of due process.

So we'll see. But it should never have gotten to this. Folks, all this is is election interference.

I want this guy off the ballot. It's politics and it's using the legal system for politics, which is actually the worst thing you can probably do in the United States of America is try to use the system of a rule of law and equal justice under the law. Once that happens, if it does happen and it fully happens, it's not the country that you thought you lived in. It's not even the country of the Founding Fathers. It's not the country that we've been fighting to build, that the people have died for to keep going and always wanting to make perfect. You are reverting back to basically a third world country in a dictatorship of who controls the courts, controls what the law means at the time.

That's not a country you want to live in, is it? I agree. Let's go back to the phones, though.

We've got more calls, too, about this vote that looks like it's going to be happy this afternoon on removing Kevin McCarthy. Joanne in Ohio, online 4. Hey, Joanne.

Hi, guys. I've got two points to make. The first one is I'm kind of mad at both sides. You know, I'm mad at McCarthy.

I'm mad at Matt Gaetz. These people have known for the last nine months that September 30th was coming. Exactly. They left for six weeks in August. I get why they go home. Spread it out.

You knew three months ago you only had a couple of these bills done. Right. Such is life.

You know what? People have to make exceptions in their lives all the time, and I'm mad at both of them. But the other point is Matt Gaetz is mad at Kevin McCarthy for working with Democrats, and now he's going to do the same darn thing. He's pushing it. The way he's doing it, he's compelling that they work with Democrats. The only winner in this whole move of Matt Gaetz is the Democratic minority of the United States House of Representatives. And I understand you're right about, by the way, they knew that these budget issues were coming for nine months. They knew they were coming for nine years, and it always comes down to this every single time.

But you're right. The only winner here is going to be the Democrats if this happens. Yeah, I mean, I think that, again, it's tough to see how Kevin McCarthy, he said he's not going to make a deal with the Democrats to survive.

But if Gaetz and a few of these will to survive, and they get to pick a leader, you could end up with a leader who's beholden to the Democrat minority. 100 percent. Joey's calling from Texas on Line 5 at ACLJ.org is where he's listening. Joey, welcome to the Broadcaster on the Air.

Thank you. Just in terms of the Trump situation in New York, the civil case, we don't know how it's going to end. We really don't know the merits of the case until it ends.

However, I think the bigger picture for me is I've got friends in New York. They've certainly known for some time way before he ran for office that he set some issues with his business dealings. So I guess my big overall question I've called before, guys, is that I don't understand conservatives getting behind Trump, not only because of that, but because of the rantings and ravings on his truth social, as well as the horrible language, and I'm not being dramatic, at his rallies. The gloves are off, he's using MF, he's using all these words.

I don't like the language either. I tend to judge these matters, though, by the policies. And if you look at the policies, first of all, look what this guy's, you've got to give him a little bit of a break because he has more incoming than any former President in U.S. history or any President in U.S. history. They've been trying to take him down since 2015. So I don't know how anybody reacts when they've got four criminal cases against you. They're trying to destroy, they want to take away your liberty for nothing, by the way.

None of these cases have merit. So they're trying to take your liberty away, and then they're trying to destroy your business and your livelihood. So you've got to give them a little bit of space there. I don't like the language, but I do love the policies.

And the policies are what matters for generations to come. Well, I think this is what, he wasn't Kevin McCarthy or Matt Gaetz. No, he wasn't.

He was the opposite of that Washington, and he wasn't beholden to Washington, which is why a lot of Washington can't stand him. He's not owned by them. He's not owned by the law firms. He's not owned by the lobbyists. He's not owned by the consultants. He's not owned by the contractors and the military companies and all of that.

He has his own business and his own life. And so he could put forward policies that the State Department couldn't stand. He could put forward policies that the DOD didn't like. He actually could carry through with what he promised the American people. And that scared Washington, D.C. because he could fight around the bureaucracy.

Now, they figured out how to make sure that was done after four years, but he's decided, which he didn't have to do, to go and try and finish the job. So I do think, again, a lot of what you're saying you don't like. I think people actually, one, if you know a lot of these politicians behind the scenes, I'm not going to name names.

Use language that's just the same. They're politicians. Remember that. And two, you're talking about his business deals, civil disputes and things like that. He's never been criminally charged before.

This is insane. He's not a criminal. Donald Trump's not a criminal. He's a public personality. He's got this tough personality, but he is not a criminal.

He's been doing business in New York, which is probably the toughest place to do in the most regulated city in the United States for 50 years and never been charged with any crime. Let's take Barry in Texas. Go ahead, you're on the air. Hey, guys. Two quick, three quick things, actually. McCarthy, this deals directly with the shutdown. What you guys need to understand, there's a bunch of us out here. I think the majority are saying, shut it down.

We don't care. There's two reasons. He broke promises. Here they are. Number one, the January 6 tapes. Kept saying he was going to release and release and release them, all of them. What did he release? All he released was the Nordic guy, right?

Where's the rest of the tape? You know what? But Barry, honestly, the guy has got a five-seat majority in the House of Representatives. The last thing I'm worried about right now is the January 6 tapes, okay?

And I don't want to shut the government down. You know why? You know who ends up losing on that one every single time?

Barry, if we study history? The Republicans. They lose the House, they lose the Senate, and they lose the White House. So you know what? Let's not let history repeat itself. And we're going to always tell you the truth on this broadcast and give it to you straight.

And it may not be the answer you want to hear, but that is the truth. The Republicans lose it every single time. And guess who doesn't get paid immediately? The military. Yeah, that's great too. So the men and women who they can't buy their kid a Christmas present because you shut the government down or their kid's birthday is next week, but they don't get their check. Yeah, not good.

All right, let me tell you this, though. We have gotten today 61 new ACLJ champions. And I'm going to encourage you, if you're not already a champion, to become a champion for liberty, for life, and for freedom by making your donations monthly.

It's a recurring gift program. And we're calling this group, we've got over 15,000 now, I want to double that in the next year to 30,000, ACLJ Champions. So go to ACLJ.org forward slash champions and you can join this elite group of our ACLJ donors who stand with us each and every month. That's ACLJ.org slash champions. Become a champion for life, a champion of liberty, and a champion of freedom. We want you to be part of this group and a huge thank you to the 61 of you that have joined today.