SHOCKING Praise for bin Laden on TikTok

Today on Sekulow, it's shocking, but there is praise for Osama bin Laden coming from Americans and other young people from around the world on TikTok. Welcome to Sekulow, and you know folks, we're in this time period and you have to remind yourself the dates and times and who is using these social media platforms like TikTok, which is primarily young people. And a lot of, of course, experts in the security world and in our world too, like Rick Rinnell said, don't have that app on your phone because of the tracking ability of the Chinese Communist Party. Pompeo has said that as well. Then you've got the other side, Ramaswamy, who said, listen, every kid in America is using it, including teenagers who can vote. And if we're not on there, they're not going to see our message.

So there's this balance. Well, what kind of blew up on TikTok, and that's a strange word to use, but true, is a video that Osama bin Laden recorded called A Letter to the American People. And this was when he talked about the 9-11 attack and what was justifying for it. And then all of these young Americans, most of them that we'll show you, were either not yet born so they weren't alive during the 9-11 attacks. They didn't live it. Or if they were, they were two, three, four years old. And unless they had a family member affected by it, it didn't have the same impact on them. And they're saying, you know what, he's making great points.

Osama bin Laden sounds really logical. So now we've gone to a point in just a few weeks where America was standing behind Israel because of the brutality of Hamas. I've seen members of Congress, you've seen them too, Dad. Lisa Fonic saw the video a couple days ago.

I saw her video. She could barely keep it together when she was just talking about what she saw. It's unreal.

And again, we've seen members of Congress say I could only make through half of it because I had to run to the bathroom and, you know, I couldn't keep it together. And from that time period, we've moved forward now to Americans praising Osama bin Laden for not just the attacks on 9-11, but the attacks on her troops like the USS Cole, the embassy in Tanzania. And again, these bombings and attacks all over U.S. troops, and they're agreeing with him.

What a shift in three weeks. No, the whole process of what's going on right now with the left, and I think this is indoctrination that comes from the colleges and universities, and they needed an impetus. They needed something that would say this is the time to do it. And, you know, now they've got it. Here's the problem with all of this, in my view, Jordan, is not only is it out there, not only is TikTok promoting it, and they finally stopped the content, not only has the White House had to respond, but the fact that this is even a thought process is scary. Then we're going to talk about what's happening in congressional offices for pro-Israel Democrats where they're having staff walkouts.

That's what's going on right now across the country. Folks, we are in a perilous, perilous situation, and we're fighting back hard at the ACLJ. As Jordan and Logan, I know, mentioned yesterday, we are preparing for a major diplomatic move over in Western Europe. It's going to be in Belgium, Strasbourg, France, and Paris on behalf of the Israeli hostages. They're representing 30 countries there, by the way, because when we're talking on the hostages, even though we may be representing a family of mostly the Israelis, you're talking about everybody. Everybody should be released.

Everybody should be out. Having said that, this is probably, and I hate saying it this way, Jordan, the last major diplomatic move on a multi-country level we're going to be able to make before it gets down to back to the Qataris and whether they can pull it off. You see what's happening there.

They're getting rejected left and right. Yeah, every time we get a report that there's about to be some kind of significant hostage release. We were hearing reports over the last two days about women and children, and about 50 or so, and that went nowhere. Listen, we met with the Qataris, too, and they said the same thing.

These would get right up to the line, and then it would fall apart. So is Hamas just playing a game with this, and is that why Israel has now decided to not just go into the north, but they drop the leaflets? They're going into south Gaza as well.

It's 25 miles long, we're talking about here, between north and south. We need your support of the ACLJ, whether it's the international work we're doing or the cases around the country, making sure you can, if you want to, vote for President Trump on the ballot. We're fighting those cases. We just got back from Colorado in court, and we're all over the country. Donate ACLJ.org. Welcome back to Sekulow.

We're taking your calls 1-800-684-3110. Part of what we do, this is part of that broadcast, too, and part of all the social media that we do, and why we put it out so much online, why we do the interviews that we do, we make the time for, we produce all these different productions, is to get truth out. Especially at times when you see just absolute lies and almost things that are unbelievable, like this letter to America from Osama bin Laden, which has resurfaced. And you're seeing on TikTok these young Americans putting it on video, public video, their reaction and praise of his letter. That everything he says, oh, it's well written and it makes sense. We put together a supercut so you can see or hear what these young Americans who read this letter from Osama bin Laden, the mastermind, the 9-11 terror attacks, the attacks on the USS Cole, the attacks on our embassies, thousands of Americans dead, Afghanistan.

Think about the war there to rout out bin Laden ultimately and to, of course, eventually kill him in Pakistan and the resources that he had. And they are listening to him as though he is a rational actor. So I want you to listen if you're listening to the broadcast and watch and listen now. This is different young people responding on TikTok after they read the letter. It is stomach-churning. So I just read a letter to America. Read it. And if you have read it, let me know if you are also going through an existential crisis in this very moment.

The way this letter is going viral right now is giving me the greatest sense of relief. The government will have you believe that people commit acts of terror because they're evil. They hate how accepting and free America is. That's not true at all.

That doesn't make any sense. They have brainwashed us to think that we was the best country on the planet, when in reality, we're the worst country on the planet. If you're Muslim and you've lived in the U.S. since 9-11, you know more truth than the typical citizen. Now it's all coming to light because of Palestine.

I feel like I'm going through an existential crisis right now, and a lot of people are. This letter is so well-written and so reasonably structured. Everything he said was valid. There you see that. These were not just having private discussion groups.

I'm going to go on camera forever and put this live video out there about how well-reasoned and true Osama bin Laden, a madman, a billionaire-turned-Islamic-terrorist, was about America. What does it say about the country? What does it say about a generation of people that have been totally brainwashed? What does it say about our education system? What does it say about our colleges and universities? I'll tell you what it says, nothing good.

This is the great problem right now. One of the women in the TikTok said she's having an existential moment. I'll give you an existential moment. You want an existential moment? 3,000 Americans killed in about an hour when two planes by Islamic terrorists smashed into buildings.

They took airplanes and turned them into bombs. You want an existential crisis? I'll give you an existential crisis, okay?

The Pentagon was attacked. You want an existential crisis? I'll give you an existential crisis.

They were aiming for the White House also, but that plane went down in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. That was an existential crisis. You want an existential crisis?

1,200 Israeli citizens killed by Hamas terrorists in the course of less than an eight-hour period of time. You want an existential crisis? I'll give you an existential crisis.

Hundreds of Democratic staff members walk out on their congressmen that they work for because those members of Congress happen to be pro-Israel. You want an existential crisis? I'll give you an existential crisis.

The State Department writing anonymous letters to the Commander-in-Chief saying, we totally disagree with your policies, we're not going to enforce them. You want an existential crisis? There is a good list of existential crises. Reading Osama bin Laden's letters is not an existential crisis. Fortunately, he's dead.

That's what's fortunate. He's gone. And Al Qaeda was decimated. But we're living in an existential crisis right now. Watch the news. Watch these families. Talk to kids that were born on September 11, 2001, who are now 24 years old and don't know their father or mother. That's an existential crisis. That's a bunch of crap that's being taught in the schools.

Really. But for the most part, these kids, unless you had that experience, didn't live this. All they've seen to them is grainy video of something that happened in 2001 and long-term wars. But this idea of how you can spread radicalism so quickly through social media to a point where you hate your own country and you're starting to side with Islamic terrorists.

There were a lot of women in that video. I wish in that letter to America, bin Laden described how he treated women and his multiple wives who had no education. They don't care. They're totally brainwashed.

Here's the truth. They don't even know what they're talking about. You ask them about Nazi Germany, they'll have no idea. They'd be enemies of Osama bin Laden. They don't understand that.

He wouldn't support TikTok and free speech and your ability to—a woman to comment on his thoughts, even if you liked it. They're talking about existential crisis. Okay, I'll give you an existential crisis.

You're living in the kibbutz and somebody comes in and butchers your children in front of you or puts them in an oven and bakes them. That's an existential crisis. What you're learning in your universities is a bunch of nonsense. These professors, you know what they need to do? These Presidents which have no backbone at these universities.

I'd like for one to come up and condemn what's going on now. One. Just one of the major universities right now. To come up major. Well, Columbia issued a statement saying we're investigating.

I think that's about it. And they always stick the line in, but you know, we also want to make sure there's no Islamophobia either. Does anybody see a lot of Islamophobia right now? No, because for the most part Americans understand that extremist terrorists who are Islamic, hopefully, and they do believe, aren't the majority of Muslims and so they don't blame the majority of Muslims. That's why the Jews who make up a much smaller percent of Americans get 60% of the hate crimes. But they can't ever say there's been a radical rise in crimes and terrorism attacks and threats against Jews without mentioning Muslims.

Why? When there haven't been those issues. If there were about the Muslims, if we were hearing about it, certainly we'd be hearing about it. They'd be putting it on TV every two seconds something happened at mosque. And I understand post 9-11 when they think they needed more security at mosque.

That made sense. But we're talking about right now a situation where the things have flipped. The people are angry at Jews, Israelis, and those who support them, like organizations like ours, people that work for us.

It has significantly changed. You know what I was most happy about after that rally this week in Washington, D.C.? Of course the size, which was great, but two, that nobody got killed.

I was worried that whole time somebody would get killed or multiple people would get killed because a lot of bad actors knew where a lot of Jews would be. Now it was heavily secured and Washington is kind of, as you know, is kind of a lockdown city these days. But to think that you have to even think like that in the United States to be in support of our number one ally in the Middle East, if not our number one ally in the world. I mean, we've got the U.K. and Israel. That's our two countries that we're most aligned with.

And Israel, most aligned with when it comes to national security. And yet, you have to think twice about wearing this lapel pin with the Israeli flag. Telling people you're Jewish. Does the Star of David that you wear under your shirt pop out on the subway train in New York and someone hit you in the face?

Or because you're a kabbah and you wear a hat, do you get smashed over the head walking down the street from synagogue? It's happening right now. It's always happened to some extent, but right now it's being praised by young people.

It's not seen as disgusting. But then you also have these congressmen's offices walking out on this. Yeah, a congressman who, Mike Bennett, who's a Democrat but has been a strong supporter of Israel, he's got staff members going out doing these walkouts. Why is that staff member not fired? Because he has gone out there and fully contradicted the position of the senator. He works for you.

That's absolutely a fireable offense. He doesn't get to have his own opinions. He can have personal opinions, but once he makes them public, his job is to work for that senator. If I was Mike Bennett, I'd get rid of that guy today. Immediately.

You think he'll get rid of him? No. Right.

Because they don't. Folks, we're in the halfway point a little bit more than our ACLJ faith and freedom drive. Look what we're dealing with as a country. Look at the issues the ACLJ is dealing with as an organization.

Whether it's election integrity so that your vote actually counts, which we were arguing yesterday in Denver, Colorado in a court. Whether it's getting ready to go to the Supreme Court on that one because that's where that one's going. Whether it's all the international efforts we've had, both domestically here in the United States over the last couple of weeks or what's about to take place in Europe. Jordan could give you, in 10 seconds, the mobilization we're making for that project. You're talking 10 or 12 staff members of the ACLJ.

Yeah. In addition to our European, well, with our European staff. We're using staff from all of our offices around the U.S. Not just Washington, not just here, but side offices as well in the United States. Our offices in Europe.

Our offices in Israel. I mean, and right now, we've got a team actually in Pakistan on other matters. And people have got to understand, we've got a team in Pakistan working on death penalty cases right now as this is all that's going on. That is happening right now at the ACLJ. So your support to the ACLJ is keeping people from being executed in Pakistan for being Christians. It is supporting Israel's right to exist because the next phase of this is law fair. They're going to try to put these Israelis in jail just like they did. They're trying to do in Nuremberg.

Yeah, they are. ACLJ.org forward slash faith and freedom. Any amount you donate is doubled. And if you can make that monthly, you become an ACLJ champion. And that makes a huge difference for us, ACLJ.

All right. Welcome back to Secular. We are joined by a great friend of the broadcast and a great friend of the American Center for Law and Justice, Congresswoman Claudia Tenney from New York's 24th congressional district, who is backing legislation to cut federal funding to colleges over. We've seen this violent anti-Semitic activity and a push for federal probes over these, again, groups like Students for Justice for Palestine and others who have gone from, again, using free speech rights to even support BDS, Boycott, Divestment, and Sanction, to now promoting violence. And we've seen that violence where Jewish students are afraid or they're put on lockdown.

And, Congressman Tenney, I want to go right to you because, of course, there's going to be people that respond right back to this. They say, oh, you're trying to cut down on freedom of speech. This doesn't stop these groups from being anti-Israel. What this prevents these groups from doing is promoting violence against Jewish students on their campus so that they don't have to be afraid to go to class, destruction of Jewish property at these schools, both at public universities and private universities, most of which receive federal funding.

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, this is a huge problem, and I keep hearing this equivalence. Well, we also have to stop Islamophobia.

The problem right now is anti-Semitism. It's been growing through our colleges. I come from upstate New York, which everyone would think, you know, what do they have to do with, you know, these high density city areas?

But we have a lot of private colleges and we have Sunni institutions. I used to have 11 colleges in my old district, including Binghamton University, where we're seeing rampant anti-Semitism. And I saw that when I represented that district. We also have… Looks like we dropped the congressman woman for a second.

We'll get her back on. But you say, even in upstate New York, people say, OK, that's not some area that would be rife with anti-Semitism. It is. Listen, we have seen the beginning, I think, of an unveiling of a level of anti-Semitism that we have not anticipated in, frankly, in decades, certainly since the 1930s during the Nazi regime.

But it continues to grow. It's coming out in the universities because they're giving Jordan a green light to say whatever they want with no repercussions whatsoever. And, Congressman, we got you back. I would imagine that there would be a lot of bipartisan support for this kind of legislation.

What has it been like so far that you've been having discussions with your colleagues? Honestly, I find this to be a very bipartisan issue. There's a few notable exceptions, obviously, in the House. But we are… The kind of thing… I've seen this for years, and it's coming out of these colleges. And I started looking into this and looking into the funding of these colleges. We have all these situations where you have millions and even, what is it, $1.5 billion invested by the country of Qatar into Cornell University right down the street from me. My father is a graduate of Cornell Law School. Obviously, they had this famous horrific situation where Professor Rickford referred to the slaughter of the Israeli civilians by Hamas as energizing and exhilarating while talking to students at the Cornell's campus. I immediately wrote a letter to the Cornell University President and said, it's time for this guy to go.

You need to expel him, and he needs to resign and be gone. And I will say, within hours, there was a special meeting where they did put him on administratively, but he needs to be gone because all of these things are inciting violence. It's against the First Amendment rights and the rights to be safe of Jewish students. And I was talking yesterday, we had a meeting on this anti-Semitism issue in college campuses. And there was a panel of people, really impressive panel, I might say, on anti-Semitism in college campuses.

And we heard from a college student from Cornell saying that she feels unsafe at the Cornell University campus because of the targeting of Jewish students. I mean, this is just totally outrageous that this is even happening and that these universities continue to get what one of our witnesses described as dark charity money, money coming from Hamas, bundled through different donor-advised funds and other ways into these universities. And we can't track it. The IRS doesn't stop it. And where does this money go?

These donors get deductions if they're American citizens. But where does the money, how do we track this money? And it all seems to be coming from the same suspicious places.

We need to start looking into this as an oversight function of Congress, as an IRS function. Where's all this money going and why are universities against their own students? It's really shocking. Congressman, one of the things that I'm also concerned about, and you just touched on this, is the university Presidents have shown absolutely no leadership or backbone in this. It's been unconscionable what they're saying and what they're allowing these students to promulgate and to advocate. Advocating for Hamas is a terrorist organization.

They're advocating the extermination of Jewish students and the destruction of Israel. And these university Presidents are stone silent. Oh, absolutely.

You know, it's amazing. I will say that it's interesting that some colleges are starting to stand up. We've seen, look, I know Governor Ron DeSantis made, when this was happening in the system, in the state university system in Florida, he wrote to the chancellor and said, we need to get rid of these Justice for Palestine organizations. I know they're still struggling, but right to your point, some of the university Presidents are reluctant to actually make this happen.

As if this is acceptable and not, you know, not illegal in our country to be attacking and targeting students based on their religious affiliation. It's really, I just don't understand why there's a weakness here, except there's so much money tied to it. And as one of our witnesses actually said, dark charities and money that these universities are relying on. Look at the size of the endowment at Harvard, for example. Why is Harvard, why are these schools able to maintain these huge amounts of money?

They really don't seem to be betting any, most people that leave Harvard end up making a ton of money at some point. You know, what's interesting, Congressman, too, is that these schools initially pitched it as, well, the reason we want to invest in Qatar wants to invest in the UAE wants to invest in maybe even the Saudis want to invest is, we want to bring these universities over to our country so that we can set up the same kind of medical programs and research programs and offer that to our own citizens as well to invest. But now we're learning that they're not just, we may have been exporting that technology, but in return back, they've been importing into the United States this anti-Americanism.

Yeah, exactly. It's really problematic. And I did recommend yesterday that we look at the Chicago Free Speech Protocol. And that is something that gives free speech rights to students on campus, but it very much restricts, and this is within First Amendment guidelines, anything that, any kind of expression that violates the law that is a threat, harassment or incitement to violence, just like what happened at Cornell's campus with this professor. We have to be very cognizant of free speech, as you know, and we've got to pay attention to that, but these universities are being funded by organizations that we have designated as terrorist organizations like Hamas.

Where is this money coming from? Why do we have these billionaires from Hamas able to fund and infiltrate our university systems with propaganda, with anti-Jewish sentiment? This is really becoming, it's scarier to me when I can get it in a city area, but when you have these little private colleges dotted in upstate New York and other parts of our country, and you're seeing this anti-Semitism taking root, it really concerns me.

The BDS movement is being talked about. I mean, this is really concerning. We've got to crack down on this now. We've got to fight.

And I love the comment you made before I got on this segment. We do need to protect Jewish students because they, and the great people in Israel, are going to be targeted for war crimes at the end of this. It's never going to end.

It's going to be just like the malicious prosecution that we see in our country against President Trump and others. You know, Congressman Wilmington, as always, we appreciate you. You're a great friend of the ACLJ. Stand strong on the Ways and Means Committee. Let's work and get this legislation through. We'll do what we can to help get this legislation through as well. And we need to support the work of the ACLJ.

You see how creative everyone is getting here. How do we fight back on the anti-Semitism here at home? Legislation. Support the work of the ACLJ and our government affairs team. Double your impact. Our faith and freedom drive right now.

ACLJ.org. Donate today. Keeping you informed and engaged. Now more than ever, this is Sekulow.

And now your host, Jordan Sekulow. You know, we have been talking about, again, the anti-Semitism at home. And we were talking about that with Congresswoman Tinney, especially that it is emanating on college campuses, in light of the fact that TikTok is having to heavily monitor this letter to the American people written by Osama bin Laden, that has got new life on TikTok from young people who were not alive or were very young and did not really experience 9-11.

So, obviously, they did not have a family member who was affected or killed during the 9-11 attacks, who now say, oh, well, if you actually listen to what he said, I agree. We were in the wrong. We were the evil. We are the bad actors. And we played that super kind of video of young people speaking this.

They are not coming up with this on their own. They are being taught this. They are being taught that America is evil because of the wars we have conducted. And when you look at the wars we have conducted, they have been against those who are the most evil against women, against minorities, religious minorities, whether that is Christians, Jews, or other religious minorities. We are the good guys. Now, do the good guys, when you go in for war, have to kill people? Are there civilian casualties?

Unfortunately, yes. But America has tried over and over again to keep the world as stable as possible, and these kids throw it right in the trash and say, we deserve what we got. And they have no idea what they are talking about. Like, the Saudis do not want us to have the base in Saudi Arabia. Right.

They want that base there. Of course they do. And so do the Qataris.

Yeah. And so does Iraq. I mean, who are we kidding ourselves? In Afghanistan, most Afghanis would have liked us to keep that base too.

Especially now when they saw what happened when we left. Anyways, let us go ahead and take a phone call. We are going to get all your calls, but we are going to take one during the break. Let us take who has been holding the longest. Yeah, Joe in New York on Line 3.

Hey, Joe. Thank you for taking my call, and prayers to all the Israelis and hostages around the world. Where has the bin Laden letter been for the last two-plus decades? Didn't the military have it when they confiscated all documents in the aftermath of bin Laden's death? He publicly released it, remember. This was something publicly released. Was it right after the 9-11 attacks? Or was this after the USS Cole?

It was like in 2003, I think. It was a letter to try and justify the attacks. Now they are using it as a new apologia.

That is what this is. This is the new apologic. This is the new statement.

This is the new rallying cry. Osama bin Laden was right. The Palestinian cause is really Hamas. They are really right. America is the great Satan.

Of course they are. Iran and the Ayatollahs, what they are doing is great. Every one of these liberal student groups that would be saying this, by the way, would be banned, thrown off buildings, and dismembered for what they do. If they would be let in. I don't think most of them would get a permit to even come into these countries. But yeah, if they brought into a university in Gaza and started spewing some of their other non-anti-Jewish hate, these other issues they care about so much, they'd be gone very quickly. The nicest thing that would happen to them is they'd be thrown out of Gaza and put on a plane in Ben Gurion and sent back to the United States.

The worst that would happen is they would be killed. We have unleashed today all of our assets for all of these projects globally, especially on the international level. But we are handling all of the domestic litigation too on the voting and everything else. Also, at the same time, ACLJ Action has just sent out a release, an email on the situation of what's going on in Gaza as well. So it's now the ACLJ Action. You can support ACLJ Action too, by the way.

When you get that email, we encourage you to respond. Also, go to ACLJ.org forward slash faith and freedom. Really important, folks. We're in our faith and freedom drive. Any amount you donate, we get a matching gift for.

But let me tell you what else is starting to happen, and we're starting to see this in a very dramatic way. Many of you, 50, 60, 70, 80, 100 a day, are signing up to be ACLJ champions. That means you're going to donate each and every month an amount you can afford. But the effect of that over time is like compounded interest for the ACLJ.

So we're already seeing it, by the way. For those of you that started in October, our recurring donations, our champions number for the month of November is up, I think, 20%, because of you. So I'm going to encourage you to go to ACLJ.org forward slash faith and freedom.

That's ACLJ.org forward slash faith and freedom. Have your voice heard. Really important that we hear from you, folks. Very, very important. And of course, while you're doing that, you can become an ACLJ champion and click that recurring donation box.

You'll get double the impact each month we do that, but pick a number you're comfortable with that you can donate each month automatically to the ACLJ and become an ACLJ champion today. 1-800-684-3110. That's 1-800-684-3110.

We're joined by our ACLJ Senior Counsel for Global Affairs, Mike Pompeo. Mr. Secretary, I want to talk to you about, you know, you got the left accusing your administration of being chaotic. I mean, this is the irony here.

These people are saying chaotic. Meanwhile, these Democratic members of Congress that are pro-Israel, their staffs are walking out on them. Or we get a thousand anonymous signatures on the letters to the President, the current President of the United States, saying we can't support your policies even though we work for you.

All of this is happening. They're demanding that Biden change his policy on Israel. And you ask yourself, who's running the show here?

Jay, it's a fantastic question. Your point is exactly right. I can't tell you how many stories were written about how Pompeo destroyed the State Department and how he didn't care about his people, how chaotic it was. The list goes on and how angry they were with the Trump administration's policies.

Now we can see what the reality is. These folks think they're in charge. These folks think that it's not enough to make your case, to make your argument, to press for the things that you think matter. And then when told, nope, this is what we're going to go do, to actually go execute that. They believe that they are more important than the duly elected officials and Secretary Blinken and all the folks who have been confirmed by the United States Senate.

They are deeply a-constitutional. And, you know, when I see these complaints, when I saw them when I was Secretary of State, my thought was always, you just seem unhappy. Perhaps you should find another line of work which would be more fulfilling for you or a place where you don't want to respond to the folks you work for. You could just kind of do whatever you want, which sadly, I fear, is what they're doing today. What concerns me, Secretary Pompeo, is that, you know, when the political appointees get in, you get in there for a specific period of time and you get to bring a significant staff, but not nearly the same size staff as the bureaucracy. So when they sign these letters, is it a tell to you and other leadership at the State Department, the team that you put together, that the policies you want to implement, we're either going to slow-walk them or we're not even going to really implement them. And you've got to then really just use the team you brought in to try and run the entire State Department.

Oh, Jordan, it's more than a tell. You can see it in not just the dissent cables or the statements and letters that they sign. You can see it in the meetings that you sit in with them.

You can see it in all kinds of places. But there are a lot of good folks that work at the State Department who just are doing their jobs, but there are way too many that are the sand in the gearbox. And that is especially true in Republican administrations. It's even more true in an administration like ours, which was disruptive, right? We changed a lot of historic policies, we think, for the better, and they wanted to have nothing to do with it. They were part of the establishment and they were going to wait you out.

We were very focused. We knew that we would have this resistance and we were focused on executing and making sure that the people that work for us executed it. The frustrating thing, Jordan, is you can't fire them. There's three unions at the State Department.

So every employee is covered by a collective bargaining agreement. You add to that the civil service rules and pretty soon you have a machine that seeks to have a mind of its own. It is an enormous leadership challenge. And it is ironic to see that the Biden administration, as progressive a presidency as we have seen in an awfully long time, isn't even progressive enough for a lot of folks inside of your United States Department of State, and it sounds like USAID and other bureaucracies as well. I want to turn attention for a moment on this current situation in the Middle East. I know you've made multiple trips there. I've been dealing with members of the families of the hostages.

You've been helping us with that. Qatar seems to be playing a key role here, but yet so far nothing's happened. What's your assessment of where things are? I know these things move quietly sometimes, sometimes very publicly, but right now there just seems to be the sense of tremendous frustration among the Israelis and among these families of what's going to happen, because time is never a good thing in these battles. I think that's true. Time works against those who want to get their loved ones returned, not the least of which is because of the risk.

But certainly people get tired, it gets harder and harder as the days go on. This is why I pray that the IDF will be able to continue to make progress and put pressure on Hamas. I think that's the most likely way to get a negotiation moving forward that will return each of these people to their families, not only the Israelis, but those from other countries as well. I hope there's more going on quietly than we know about.

I suspect there likely is, Jay. And I hope that every nation, not just the United States, but every European country, that every Middle Eastern country, including the Qataris, are working towards this resolution. We have to make a priority to get these men and women back to their families. There's little kids, there's elderly.

It's really hard to imagine. A woman gave birth here two days ago. A hostage gave birth two days ago. She was nine months pregnant when they took her.

Who knows what's happened to that child and that mother. Here's the other aspect of that. We're sending, and I'm going to lead, a major delegation of the ACLJ working with Israelis as well to Brussels to meet with the Council of Europe, European Union, and so forth, and a lot of ambassadors, and to get these families in front of them. The EU has been a little bit stronger than they have in the past, certainly in condemning Hamas as it relates to utilizing the hospitals and calling Hamas a terrorist organization. But I think for our audience it would be very helpful, Mike, for people to hear from you the importance of engaging even Europe on this, these kind of issues, that these are not just U.S. administrative issues, that you've got to really deal with this. It's a global issue. Jay, that's a really good point, and you've always done such a remarkable job at the ACLJ of engaging, not just in Europe, but all across the world. The pressure that needs to be brought to bear on Hamas and their primary interlocutor, the guys who support them in Iran, they need to make clear that they are isolated.

We can't have folks who are just kind of sidling up to them or saying, I don't want to fight this fight. The fight to get these hostages home is a global fight. America will have an enormous amount of impact and capacity.

Israel will have an enormous amount of impact and capacity, but we should absolutely ask every one of the European nations to be part of trying to help solve this problem and get these folks back to their families just as quickly as we possibly all can. I did want to ask you a question about China, because we saw Chairman Xi with President Biden calling him a dictator, and it was interesting to see Secretary Blinken's face when that happened. But what do you take away from that meeting and those meetings in San Francisco where business leaders were brought together, but also not just business leaders that were brought together, but also, of course, the first time I think he had been here in years? Yeah, so, you know, these meetings are often lots of hype with little action here. All the action I've seen probably is to the benefit of the Chinese Communist Party. I'll be surprised. They made a promise to reduce the fentanyl precursors coming out of the country.

I pray that that's true. I doubt that Xi will live up to his promise. There was apparently an agreement on climate change, on energy issues. You can be sure Xi Jinping is not going to be a pro-climate, get rid of coal.

He needs that energy to have affordable manufactured products. I think the administration is just a bit naive to think that a good relationship and a warm meeting are going to lead to a constructive outcome for the American people. And I hope I'm wrong, but my guess is that Xi Jinping went home on the same day that the United States gave $10 billion to the Iranians, on the same day where the President refused to bring up the fact that COVID killed a million Americans and came out of their laboratory. I think he went home thinking this was a propaganda coup for him at least.

And that matters while his economy is struggling at home. For Xi Jinping, that propaganda win alone was worth the trip to America's West Coast. Let me ask one last question.

We only got about a minute left here, Mike, and that is this. I know you've made numerous trips over to Israel during this. What's the sense of – can you get – I'm sure you've picked it up with the sense of both the government is and the people you talk to. I'm talking to Israelis every day and every night, and they're very determined, but they're also very worried.

Yeah, those are the two best descriptors. Enormous amount of worry, worry about how this happened, worry about how do we make sure this doesn't happen again, concern that Hezbollah might get involved, worried that their government's not prepared to help get this right for them. But they are determined. There is a – there is a steeliness about the conversations that I have with every Israeli, no matter if they're a businessperson or someone who's serving in the IDF or in an intelligence service, Shin Bet or Mossad. They are focused. They are determined.

They know that they have a responsibility to get this right for the country, and they're damn well going to do it. All right. Thanks very much. We appreciate it so much and appreciate all your expertise on this. We're blessed to have you as part of our team. Folks, I'm going to ask you to do something here. We are at our halfway point, a little bit more than halfway of our faith and freedom drive.

This is really important. We have – and we've been very fortunate because you've really responded, but these next two weeks are really critical. And for those of you who think about supporting the work of the American Center for Law and Justice, this is the time to do it. So you know what we're doing domestically on the election issues, for instance, or the FBI or for pro-life centers. We're handling them all over the country. We're handling things all over the world. You hear what Mike Pompeo said. We mentioned that we're going to head to Brussels and Strasbourg and probably Paris, and he mentioned you're going to have to go to the rest of the world too.

I mean, that's just the reality. We can't do it without you, and that's, folks, where you come in. Your donations will be doubled through the ACLJ's faith and freedom drive.

You go to ACLJ.org forward slash faith and freedom. Very important you do that. Any amount you donate. You know, we're getting some very large gifts in there too, I might add. Our average gift is $34, and we couldn't survive without those, and that's great. But some of you have donated $5,000 and $10,000, and that's great too.

Whatever the amount, it doesn't matter. But those of you that can make this monthly, become an ACLJ champion, you're setting us up for a generation to be able to fight. Yeah, especially if you are one of those $35 a month owners. If you could make that recurring, you don't have to think twice about it. You know it's going to go out, and again, that's significant for the ACLJ in our planning.

If $100 is an amount that you can easily do, or $1,000, that recurring amount is a way we can then plan to take on these massive events, which you don't always get a lot of notice for, but you have to be ready to act. All right, welcome back to Secchia. We're going to write the phones at 1-800-684-3110. Debra's calling from Illinois online for, hey Debra. Debra, you there?

Yes, I'm here. Thank you. Yeah, my comment was for the young people and anyone else who supports us or any terrorist organization, that they don't seem to know right from wrong, and it does speak to what seems to be some bankruptcy, moral bankruptcy. Let me tell you what it is. It's these college campuses. Yeah, they're telling them this is right.

Yeah, it's not that they can't figure out if it's right or wrong, they're being told this is right. So let's not kid ourselves. This is the real battle.

You should support it. We're going to call it like it is. That's why it's Students for Justice for Power. That's exactly right. They use the terms to brainwash them. Exactly.

Todd? Yes, I would support the banning of TikTok and WeChat. Marxism is political and cultural Satanism. They can use that app for espionage, propaganda, incitement of hate mobs, and the fact that the institutionalized bigotry is TRT. Listen, what we've seen is twofold. I think we've seen, one, TikTok almost got banned and they made a lot of promises.

Then they saw this was a problem and right now they are taking down these videos as quickly as possible. But that's not so easy to do because if you don't use the hashtag, they're not going to see it. The issue is going to be this, Logan.

How do we reach these young people if we don't use it? Because I'm getting a little nervous about that now. I totally agree. I got it at first because Rick Rinnell scared me from it.

Me too. But if the ACLJ decides not to be there ever and it keeps growing the way it grows, we're not going to be reaching the 18-year-olds. That's what you had Vivek Ramaswamy say. At some point you do miss that people. I think he's right. I think that's why we have to start looking at options of being everywhere, even if it makes you a little uncomfortable.

Or creating programs that are that much better that the kids leave. Yeah, I think that's what you'd hope. Unfortunately, I think we're at a place where you have to start creating new content. That's one of the things we're doing here with our new movie is we are creating content because you can win a culture war much better instead of just through talking heads. Look, they're not going to watch this broadcast. Unlikely, they'll stumble upon this and decide to watch. But maybe they'll watch a Christmas movie.

Maybe their family will gather around the TV on Thanksgiving night to watch our new movie. Because other people are putting it in front of them and saying, look, does it have great messages? Absolutely. Does it beat you over the head with these messages? No, we actually influence culture. I think that is the big part of this. It's influencing culture, not just yelling and shouting and trying to do that in a way that is going to change a lot of hearts and change a lot of minds.

We've seen that. We've seen that in the progressive movement. They've really done a great job of infiltrating media and TV and changing people's feelings on so many issues by showing a normalization or showing a way that makes you more comfortable with issues that you weren't at one point. I'd say that at one point America was not comfortable. Now they're very comfortable with it, some for good and some for bad. But now we're at the point where we have to stand up and have content that also represents our values. Which we are doing at the ACLJ, not just with this broadcast and all the videos we produce, but a brand new motion picture that Logan's team has put together with ACLJ Films, executive producers Logan and Sean Hannity, so you know the content speaks to the issues.

Yeah, absolutely. It is a Christmas comedy. It's called Jingle Smells. It's available on Thanksgiving Day, which is very exciting, and we have partnered for the premiere. The premiere platform is on Rumble.

That's right, the free speech platform. It's going to be on Rumble on Thanksgiving Day. You can pre-order right now. If you're on Rumble, just type in Jingle Smells.

You can go to rumble.com slash jingle smells or on our website. Tell our audience what kind of the concept of the movie was and why we did it. Yeah, well, one of the main reasons we did it is because, like I said, I think we have to be there. We have to be making a statement, not just to Hollywood, to say, man, what would be an amazing statement if ACLJ Films, in partnership with Sean Hannity, creates the number one Christmas movie of the year?

What if that happens? The number one new Christmas movie of the year comes from ACLJ, and it can happen because there's so many of you that watch and enjoy this broadcast that just you alone can really do that and tell your friends about it. Because it is a Christmas comedy that you're going to like, regardless, honestly, of your political opinion. Because the politics in it, or you want to say the cultural content is in it, all revolves around sort of the satirical nature of what's happening in our media.

So when you talk about the first thing you see is about a celebrity who gets canceled for just saying God bless America and may he protect our troops. That sounds funny. It's ridiculous.

It's a bit satire, but it's really not. We've seen the attacks on someone like a Chris Pratt for putting up a cross in his backyard on Easter. These are the same things that are happening. And then toys being pulled from the shelf, guess what? That happened as well in real life due to someone's political opinions and their cultural commentary. And those toys get pulled from the shelf.

And what happens at that point? There's another sub story going on with our lead character, Ben Davies, from The Daily Wire. He is on there and he plays an Afghanistan war vet who comes back after the withdrawal, kind of falls on some hard times, and gets a job as what we call a garbage man. As a garbage man Santa, if you will.

They are tasked to destroy these toys and instead you can take it from there, become sort of a Robin Hood style adventure. Again, it stars John Schneider from the Dukes of Hazzard and from Smallville. You've got Jim Breuer over Tori Jackson from SNL. You've got Dylan Hornswoggle Postel and James Storm.

You know, if you're a professional wrestling fan, you've got Academy Award nominee Eric Roberts. And of course, you make an appearance. Jordan, you make an appearance.

We all are in it in some ways. You can listen closely. You'll hear me a few times. If you like this broadcast, Will's in it. There's so many people that are... Andy Oconimo makes a cameo. It is a really fun movie. It's new music from the Jay Sekulow Band. And there's a song from John Rich is in it as well. The cast is unreal, like you said.

I mean, the cast is unbelievable. And it's a comedy, so the whole family can watch it, but it has a really important message. It says something significant on the issues we deal with at the ACLJ, and it's a great way for you to get it.

Now, how do folks, what do they need to do? Pre-order. You can pre-order right now. Just go to jinglesmells.movie.

That's the domain, jinglesmells.movie. If you're already a Rumble user, just type in jinglesmells. It'll come right up. There's a button that says order, buy access. Click that button, put in your credit card information, and then on Thanksgiving Day, it'll unlock and it'll be available. And you can download the Rumble app on your television or on your smart device.

It's available there right now. And again, our goal is big. Our goal is not only to change Hollywood and really impact what's happening, because we can do that. And by the way, the dollar is really what shows Hollywood what matters.

We've seen that this year, how important that is. So you can go, you can buy this film, you can watch as many times as you want, starting on Thanksgiving Day and in perpetuity after that. So again, it supports the work of the ACLJ as well.

I want to make sure that's clear. People understand that it's not just a movie we made on the site. This is part of ACLJ films. It's really fun. I hope you enjoy it. But also, like you said, it has very important messages. But the most important message is sending a message to Hollywood to say, this is not going to be how it's always going to be.

We will be able to produce high quality, good content that not only rivals what they're putting out, but also is on par with it. And it also has messages that are strong, but are done creatively. It's not cheesy. It's not corny. It is a movie I've watched over 100 times now in the edit process. And I think it's still a great movie. I'm very proud of it. I'm very proud of the whole team. That's how many times I saw Blazing Test, that was, by the way, and I wasn't editing it. At least 100 times. We've said it's very much more akin to not a Hallmark Christmas movie, it's much more akin to the Christmas movies we grew up with, whether that's Home Alone or Christmas Vacation or sort of the Christmas comedy.

With a great message. People are asking, I'm watching the comments, so is it exclusively Rumble? Premiering exclusively on Rumble on Thanksgiving Day.

And then it'll be available? Rumble is where we are telling people that is where you need to go to watch this movie. Rumble, so go to Rumble. So if you're on Rumble right now and you're asking me questions on Rumble, you know how to do it because you're on Rumble. Oh, you're on Rumble. That's why I did it.

So that's where you want to get it. And I got to give a shout out to them because this is the first ever feature film they've premiered on their platform that's a non-documentary. By the way, over a half million people view your... So collectively we've had probably 700, 800,000 people watch the trailer.

On Rumble alone, over 400,000. So we really think with those numbers, we think we can make a big difference. I'm sure. And we can all do it together. So you need to go on our website and pre-order this movie, send a message to Hollywood. Let's make it the number one Christmas movie in the country this year. I think it's great.

jinglesmells.movie. Also support the work of the ACLJ. You know how to do it. Go to ACLJ.org forward slash faith and freedom and become an ACLJ champion by donating each and every month. We'll talk to you Monday.