MASSIVE ARRESTS: Chaos Turns Violent in New York Protests

Today on Sekulow, massive arrests as chaos turns violent in New York protests. Keeping you informed and engaged, now more than ever, this is Sekulow.

We want to hear from you. Share and post your comments or call 1-800-684-3110. And now your host, Jordan Sekulow. Hey, welcome to Sekulow. We are taking your calls to 1-800-684-3110.

That's 1-800-684-3110. Of course, today we are going to be looking at what's happening with these protests across college campuses, focusing in on some of where we saw the worst protests yesterday. What will they be doing next? We already now know that Columbia University, which remember announced at least two days, two days of virtual school, has now gone to finish the year with virtual school.

So it's not just the week of Passover or the first two days of Passover. There will be no on-campus classes at Columbia University in New York for the rest of the school year, which is about three more weeks when you include final exams. So that's how it got so out of control, they don't believe they could get it under control and provide a safe environment for their students to both learn and study before they take their final exams. You wonder, will the students graduating even be able to experience an actual graduation ceremony? Logan in the sits, it's kind of like that scary flashback, dystopian flashback to the COVID years. Yeah, the summers of 2020.

Where you did everything by screen and you no longer could interact with people. And you have to wonder if maybe some of this violence that we're seeing is even connected to the fact that people forgot how to even protest events without attacking each other because they had different views. President Trump actually talked about this specifically yesterday, I guess as he was leaving probably the court, because of the fact there was obviously some Trump protesters, there were some supporters, but that balance is certainly not equal in the way that's being treated, so take a listen.

That's interesting outside. For great Americans, people that want to come down and they want to protest at the court, and they want to protest peacefully, we have more police presence here than anyone's ever seen, but blocks you can't get near this courthouse. And yet you have nobody up in a college where you have very radical people wanting to rip the colleges down, the universities down, and that's a shame, but it all starts with Joe Biden. I mean we were seeing massive arrests yesterday, over 150 at NYU, and we know that because their system broke down after they arrested 134, but they were still having more arrests there.

A lot more to process. Colombia, over 100. I mean, again, when you get to these kind of numbers, you realize you don't know how many of them are actually students, how many of these are agitators. We saw it at Harvard Square too, had been shut down from protests. You're seeing the buses filled with these arrests.

But what we are seeing is a nonstop movement. It may come to a quieter time when these campuses, again, they take about a month off during their winter break. They're definitely not going to be calling it Christmas break at these schools.

But what happens when they come back? And by the way, in these major cities, these protesters, I don't even know if they go to these schools. Right. It's not the same as going to a big campus, what you think of maybe in the southeast or something like that. Or anywhere in the world. Or Notre Dame or anywhere, yeah, exactly, where there's just a big college campus. It's not really set up that way.

These are city campuses that can be overtaken easily by protesters, like you said, who may have no affiliation to the school. And that just is what's happening nationwide and we're in worldwide. We're going to be hearing later on in the next segment, Rick Grinnell is going to be joining us to kind of discuss that. And then later in the broadcast, we'll be joined by John Androzek, who you know from Five for Fighting the Band.

He was over in Israel just this past week, performed at the Hostage Square. We're going to talk about that the night of the attack from Iran. So we're going to talk about that. That's going to be really interesting.

That'll be later in the broadcast. This is a great time to get your phone calls in, though. 1-800-684-3110, the thousands of you watching online. This is a great time to actually be heard. 1-800-684-3110 as we are now in the tail end of our life and liberty drive where all donations to the ACLJ are effectively doubled.

And if you become a recurring donor right now, you can join over 21,000 ACLJ champions. That's what we call you who fight with us each and every month. We've seen sort of the hatred spell out, obviously during the Passover holiday.

And now, like Jordan said, schools are having to go virtual because of it. We're going to fight back. Go to ACLJ.org right now. Support our work during this life and liberty drive. We'll be right back with Rick Grenell.

Welcome back to Secular. We are taking your phone calls as well. 1-800-684-3110.

That's 1-800-684-3110. We wanted to bring Rick Grenell into this conversation, Rick. Of course, as an ambassador to work at the UN, so he's been in New York as well.

And with a national security background as well. Rick, we are seeing really unprecedented levels of violent protests in the street. On behalf of the Palestinian cause specifically, this all started around October 7th. There was some sympathy for Israel.

Quickly, that sympathy was gone. And now we've seen over six months and now that Iran has gotten involved and Israel's gotten involved for the first time ever actually shooting back and forth each other from their own territories that these protests have led to now Columbia University going virtual for the rest of this semester. They said they can't get the campus under control for their final two weeks of class and their final exams. I think there were close to four or five hundred arrests yesterday just at New York City universities and colleges. And that's just what the police were able to report. These colleges and universities, Rick, have not been able to keep their own students safe, especially their Jewish students safe, but anyone that has a different view safe.

And now it's like they're kind of giving up and saying, just go home. We can't keep you safe here. And this is in the United States of America.

Yeah, look, I think you just hit it on the head with that phrase, keeping them safe, because that's really the crux of what's happening. We live in America where you get to protest, you get to dissent from government action, you get to say whatever you want, except, I guess, if you're Donald Trump. But the reality is, is that that's what we celebrate in America is dissenting views and protests.

And I'm all for having this conversation in a rational way. What I think that the far left has done, though, is they've hijacked this process. And now they're canceling the other side. They're intimidating the other side. They're putting violence against the other side. People don't feel safe. And that means that my voice then doesn't get to be heard because you are intimidating and seeking violence against me and silencing me.

That, to me, is where the university Presidents come down. They should say to these protesters, this is your area. You have to stay in this area to protest. I find nothing wrong with telling people in a public square you have to stay in this corralled area. Speak up.

Have any sign you want. Don't be violent. But when people walk down the campus, they have a right to avoid you. They have a right, if they feel unsafe, to go around you. And right now, this crowd, this mob, is following people, intimidating them, and even starting with violence. This is unacceptable, and the Presidents of the universities need to start acting. Yeah, there's other ways law enforcement can be utilized here.

Again, you want to be careful. There's a mix of students here, of agitators here. A lot of these are city campuses which are even more difficult to track. Who are the actual students? Who are the actual bad guy protesters utilizing this? But as you said, Rick, they're not in some college square area that you can avoid. When you look at the photos, they are blocking buildings.

You can't get into class. They are tracking down students who they think are Jewish, or maybe have a yarmulke on, and they are harassing them and even getting violent. And the arrest, it just seems to me this is the interesting part about this moment.

We saw it in the Golden Gate Bridge. This movement in the United States is growing, Rick, and I think it's waking a lot of Americans up to the fact that there's a significant group, not a majority, but a significant group of people in the United States of America who take a view, which is very anti-American, but as like Rashida Tlaib said, we will use the U.S. Constitution and all the rights guaranteed to us to take their policies down. Well, one of the things that we have to be very proud of is that we have a U.S. Constitution where you get to speak your mind. And so if she's trying to manipulate the process, it doesn't matter.

She's participating in the greatest system in the history of the world. But I do think that we have to play smarter, and we should be able, in a college campus, for instance, it's a private university, they should be able to shut it down and only allow students on campus or staff members. If you're a professional agitator, which it's clear there are many in these situations, if you're a professional, you know, goer to violence and events and it doesn't really matter what it is, you just want chaos and so you cover your face and you create chaos, I don't think that you have a right to be on the university campuses. The university Presidents should shut that down. Take IDs, and if you are a student and you want to protest, then you have every right to do that as long as you're not violent.

Yeah, I mean, I've seen that, you know, I remember in my college days we couldn't get into any buildings without having all of your right IDs. I mean, I went to universities in a city as well, GW, so we had protests. There was one week we had to shut down. It was when the World Bank meeting was happening, the IMF meeting, and the school decided they didn't think they could keep the students safe. There'd be too many protests, and so they sent us home for a week and they closed classes. But they did that preemptively for five days. It wasn't like these events, which they could predict, but it's like they let them get out of control while their students and faculty were there putting them more at risk.

They didn't do anything preemptive. They didn't say, you know what, this is a week that's going to be ridiculous here. We're already seeing the protests.

We don't have enough security. We know it's Passover. It's a holiday for a lot of kids. Let's send them home for a week so that these protesters, no one actually even follows their protest because there won't be anybody here to protest at.

Yeah, I don't think they were thinking three-dimensionally, if you will. They weren't really looking at the calendar going, okay, this could be a problem. Maybe we need to think about how our student body, but not only our student body, how other people, as Rick said, all of the people in masks will treat this situation because that is the problem.

You can see those telltale signs. Now, I do think there's some, you know, the sort of glimmer of hope, the silver lining, is when you have a situation like what happened at Google and YouTube where they had, you know, thousands of, they're not thousands, they had dozens of their employees protest and those employees were fired, you know, as they probably should have been as they were doing a sit-in in their CEO's office. If you have more actual action happening where you have big companies saying, look, we don't even care if you're out there protesting, but as soon as you bring it on our property, now we got a problem. That could start solving this, you know, giving a solution really to these over-the-top protests that are happening that are filled with threats.

The other idea that, I believe it was France who put this forward and I think it's a really good idea, is that if you're going to be protesting, you can't cover your face. I don't believe that you have the right to be anonymous because then if you commit some sort of crime, we don't know who you are. And so if you're going to go into a mob, if you're going to protest, I am totally comfortable with saying that you've got to be identified so that we know you're not hiding something that's going to create violence. Yeah, I mean, listen, this is what the police, they encounter and it's a mess. It's because you could say in the United States, we've had this long discussion throughout our history that you can have anonymous speech. Is this anonymous speech or is this anonymous chaos? I mean, this is, again, isn't even a protest at this point. I mean, and that's when you have to start getting into the legal ideas. The fact that when mass amounts of people start being arrested, that's not a that's not just civil disobedience, Logan.

That is, you came to do violence, you came to injure, you came to hurt. Yes, you wanted to bring attention to your issue, but not in a positive way. The interesting thing is, though, Rick, and again, I think it tells us a lot about where our country is and why this election coming up is so important, because it's like our country, listen, it can go one way or the other because I don't think this is not just a bunch of 18 and 19 year olds on these college campuses doing this, but they're certainly going to be influenced by it. And so depending on who our leaders are is going to influence, is this the direction of our country? Is it going to be a pro Hamas movement inside our college campuses, not just liberal, but pro Hamas?

Or is it going to be a country that understands there will be dissent, understands protesting, can respect that without turning to violence? Yeah, look, that that's the issue for me is the violence. I love free speech and I want people to be able to have it. But when you are creating violence, when you're creating an unsafe environment for others to have their free speech, and clearly there are Jewish students who are feeling intimidated, who are intimidated and they're losing their right, that's unacceptable. That's not you're not allowed to do that.

You're not allowed to take someone else's safety away from them. Rick, as always, we appreciate your analysis and being part of our team at the American Center for Law and Justice. And folks, Rick is part of our team, Logan, because we've got folks who are the ACLJ champions and because they take part in our life and liberty drive. We are in the middle of sending right now 43 demand letters to different countries calling on them to designate Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist group with new sanctions. We secured religious accommodations during Passover at Georgia State University. We're battling 18 FOIA lawsuits.

We'll talk about one of those. We come back from the break and it is a time to defend Israel, both abroad and Jewish students and people here in our own country in the United States of America. You're right, this is that moment to defend Israel and Jewish students from being attacked on their campuses and at their homes. Give a gift right now and it will be doubled by an ACLJ supporter as well. You can also become an ACLJ champion by going to ACLJ.org and opting in. Become a monthly supporter. We are starting to wrap up this life and liberty drive and these are the days we really could use you. Individual donations are great.

Monthly reoccurring donations are amazing as well. We'll be right back. Take your calls. All right, welcome back to Secchio. We are taking your phone calls to 1-800-684-3110. That's 1-800-684-3110. And as you know, the ACLJ, some of the work that we do, and this is important with the FOIA work that we do, the Freedom of Information Act work that we do.

And Logan, these are not quick hitters. This is not something like you file and usually these government agencies love to give you all their information immediately. But when you do file and you keep fighting, you get some really excellent information. And we filed a FOIA back during the Afghanistan withdrawal because we wanted to know what was, you know, like what advice was being given to the State Department and the Biden administration about the dangers of having a withdrawal without really any kind of plan for keeping even a small number of troops there or hanging onto the base there, the air base there. Instead of just like that Vietnam-looking helicopters taking off. They simply said we weren't going to see that.

It wasn't going to look like Saigon. No, it was worse because you know what, 13 American soldiers got killed. And we saw the return of ISIS-K, people holding on and falling off of airplanes at 500 feet high in the air.

I mean, it was disturbing imagery to this day. And then we found out through our FOIA, which by the way, we had to go to court to get this information from the State Department. A major NGO, a liberal organization, was providing information to the State Department between October 1st and October 30th regarding what the outcome of the final U.S. withdrawal of Afghanistan would look like. And the NGO network warned the State Department that if it did not change course with this full withdrawal, listen to this one. The U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan would lead to a, and see if we're feeling this right now, quote, great power competition with China and Russia and interference by Iran to exert nefarious influence in the region and undermine U.S. strategic and security interests. Went on to say that failing to accompany the military withdrawal with the aforementioned engagement in USAID and other organizations will not only undo the hard-fought gains made in Afghanistan during the last 20 years, but will also create newfound costs through a security vacuum, the country's return to an extremist safe haven, a new refugee crisis, a widespread regional and global instability, U.S. disengagement will create space for great power competition with China and Russia.

And again, as we said, it interferes by Iran. And now what do we look at? Yeah, how long ago was this? When was the time? 2021. 2021, and what? This was like a fortune teller.

This is someone who predicted pretty much the future coming. Yeah, it's called the Alliance for Peacebuilding. It's a 150-member organization in 180 countries. I don't think, again, that these are all a bunch of right-leaning groups either, but this was their warning, Logan. And look, I mean, you go through it, you say, all right, well, we know what Russia's been doing. I mean, full invasion of Ukraine.

We know that China, again, has been threatening with Taiwan and has been taking, they've been building up new allegiances, which are much more risky-like allegiances with Russia and Iran. And of course, Iran was bold enough for the first time in its history not to use a proxy, but to actually fire its own weapons into Israel. Now, that didn't go so well for Iran. Israel did respond. They weren't able to shoot down any Israeli weapons. And so far, we've not seen another response from Iran. I think Iran probably is rethinking right now. They got the message. We probably have to go back to the using our front groups, which can be just as even more deadly because they can't take Israel on directly.

But the reports, this is what the report says. You can't, like, we didn't, when the end of World War II, we didn't just leave. You know, we didn't leave Germany. It wasn't like we were gone. We're still there. Korean War over, still there.

But Afghanistan, nah, we're gone. Yeah, we had to get out of it completely. I mean, I think there's a big push to get out of it from a big stance. But I think we now look back on it and go, that was a pretty massive mistake. And speaking of Israel- When you could get out of it, you could have kept the airbase, which also put pressure on China.

Yeah, getting up some of those assets, I don't really understand. So there's a U.S. embassy, things like that. In about 10 minutes also, we're going to be joined by John Andrazak, who you know from Five for Fighting, who was actually there during that attack from Iran and Israel. He's been in the studio with us before, and he wanted to catch up, and he also performed with some of the troops, met with some of the hostage families.

He has an amazing story coming out of Israel. So that's going to be about 10 minutes, so stay tuned for that. And we'll also take some phone calls coming up. Yeah, but again, I think this shows you just our FOIA work. They bury this away.

You have to go to lawsuits to get this information. And then you realize that they- Listen to this from this report. As the clock runs out, the U.S. security presence in Afghanistan, the time is now for the U.S. to articulate a long-term strategy that identifies how sustained U.S. engagement could protect against violent conflict, the refugee crisis, and regional destabilization. As you can see now, all of that occur, and more war, and more loss of life, and- I mean, to even, Logan, predict a year ago that Iran would fire directly from its own country into Israel. And that Israel would fire back, while at the same time, engage in its longest conflict with Hamas in its history, after it suffered the largest loss of Jewish people killed in one day since the Holocaust. To predict all of that would be occurring within a matter of six months. Yeah, I think that- Oh, and an ongoing war in Ukraine and Russia that has no end in sight.

Yeah, I mean, I think it's been a bit of a heck of a six months for sure. It's usually not how Israel does things, but we are seeing that they finally got pushed sort of over that edge, where now you do have Hamas kind of on the ropes, it seems like. You do have Hamas on the ropes, you've got Iran rethinking its whole strategy, because again, they acted tough, so they knew they were going to get hit back, and when they got hit back, they weren't able to stop anything. I mean, that was pretty outstanding.

What Israel did was, instead of taking it right to their nuclear base, they hit it right next door to it. Alright, let's take a quick phone call about some of the protests that are happening. I think we should do that before we head into the break. Let's go to Mary Ellen in Illinois on Line 1. Mary Ellen, welcome back, you're on the air.

Thank you. I just want to comment about these protests. I think they've been long in coming, because I think back to the days when Obama was in office, I remember I was in college, the Muslim group and I, we had a fight to get a campus crusade prayer room, because the Muslims already had theirs and they denied us and so on. Anyway, going forward, the care group would meet in Chicago, and I used to see all kinds of hateful things coming out of that group, and they still meet there annually for their conferences. So then fast forward to 2020 at the BLM in Antifa, and now you have in Congress the squad and one of the members has her flag flying from a non-American flag, the Palestinian flag or whatever is going out of her office.

And it's like, it's well organized and it's been planned for many years, so this is no surprise, but now it's more out in the open. Yeah, well listen, I think they're more emboldened because it's more acceptable within their communities. It's not like the universities, they're condemning the violence, they're not condemning the fact that they're supporting terrorist countries.

Yeah, I mean I think they're now having to flash back to a few years ago when the protests hit the streets and go, okay, now this is starting to feel eerily similar, obviously we feel differently about this, and I think a lot of people feel differently about this than they would have any of the other protests. And you go, well how do we treat this? And I think there's concern with the universities, they don't know what to do.

They are put in a place where their student body and their faculty may not be on the same page in a very different way. So we're going to keep taking your calls, 1-800-684-3110, but also we have a second half hour coming up, so make sure you don't go anywhere. If you do lose us, join us on ACLJ.org anytime or on our podcast or on YouTube or Rumble. We are broadcasting there right now.

If you're watching on one of those, say hello. I'll be checking those comments in this very quick break, only about a minute break. Support the work of the ACLJ during the Life and Liberty Drive right now at ACLJ.org. Less than a minute, we'll be back. Keeping you informed and engaged, now more than ever, this is Sekulow. And now your host, Jordan Sekulow. All right, welcome back to Sekulow.

We are taking your phone calls to 1-800-684-3110. Look, we take one of those the first segment. I did want to update people today too, because again, the Trump trials that are ongoing, one, they figured out the bond deal, and that's the Letitia James case, that is not the D.A. Alvin Bragg case. And today, what they're figuring out in the Alvin Bragg case, after they had some opening statements from the prosecution defense and even brought up one of the first witnesses, David Becker from News of the World, all those different wonderful news... National Enquirer. Yeah, National Enquirer.

And American media, I think is who own it. And he's no longer CEO, but again, he was not done testifying yet, so I think he will testify more today. But before that, they were going to get to whether or not President Trump had violated the gag orders, which also brings up constitutional concerns, because of course, you've got these individuals that are testifying against him saying whatever they want about him. I mean, some of these people have been to jail for lying under oath, and he can't respond in public. He can't defend himself. So there are some issues, not typical in a court case, because he is a public figure running for the highest office in the land, representing one of the major political parties. And so again, if you violate a gag order, what can a judge do?

It's usually a fine of $1,000 per violation, but it can be, if you combine a bunch, like three or four even, you can actually send someone to jail for 30 days. Don't think that will happen. That's an update there for that.

I think you should know that. That's what's happening today right now. We will take more comments on that, too, in the sort of last segment of the broadcast. We do have a lot more calls coming in right now.

I do want to take some of these on the situation in Israel, or not Israel, the protests that are happening about Israel and about... What's happening here? Let's go ahead and take one of these calls. Let's go to Gray, who's calling in North Carolina. Gray, you're on the air watching on Rumble, our free speech platform that we're happy to be on. Gray, you're on the air. Hey, Gray. Hey, thanks for taking my call.

I'm a proud champion. I've been listening to you guys for years. Hey, I'm a little concerned about, you know, they're arresting these rioters and as they're... I'm sorry, protesters. And as they're doing it, they're screaming at the cops because they know they're going to get let out the next day.

If not even sooner than that. I mean, I think a lot of these protesters, I would imagine because of the prisons are so full, the holding cells in New York are so full of violent criminals. I think they're taking them, you know, maybe down to a precinct. Maybe they are booking some of these, but I think some of them are just getting them out of the area and then just letting them out. Yeah, that's probably likely what's happening for a lot of protests.

You'll see that it'll be, you know, quicker. Even some of the ones we've represented, like pro-life protesters, sometimes they go to jail for a very long time. Sometimes they go to prison, but sometimes they're just sort of arrested, moved out of the way, processed and released. In this situation, are they even being processed? I think that's why these numbers are all over the place. Like how they said in NYU, they stopped counting at 134 because their system broke down on campus police.

I mean, at some point, yeah, right, they're overriding the system. So I think, yeah, at best they're getting out the next day. Worst is they're getting out in an hour and they're going right back to do the same thing, which is why I think you saw Columbia and we'll see if others have to make this move, Logan. I think some of it depends on how your college is, how the campus is set up within these cities and how dangerous they've become. If we see other universities and colleges make the same decision that, hey, we've only got a few weeks left. Most of that is just exam prep and exams, which a lot of those are done on computers now anyways. So just send students home. But, you know, then who's going to pay for these schools?

At a certain point to not be there, you know, going to Columbia virtually is not the same. No. Hey, coming up in the next segment, we're going to be joined by John Andrasik. You know him, like I said, from Five for Fighting. He has his song, OK, which is about the situation in Israel and really came right after the attack. And he was there performing during the attack from Iran just a few hours before that attack happened.

He was on stage in Hostage Square. We're going to talk about that with him and just get an update. You saw him maybe a few weeks ago or a month or so ago on on this broadcast, and we continue to support him as he's been doing this.

So John Andrasik joining us next. Support the work of the ACLJ during this life and liberty drive. We really could use support right now as time is ticking on this month. This is the last time in the month of April. You can get your donations matched.

So right now, go to ACLJ.org. We'll be right back with John. Welcome back to Sekulow. We are excited always to have our friend John Andrasik from Five for Fighting on. And you just saw if you're watching on any of our social feeds or watching on YouTube or Rumble, you just saw a live performance and talk from John. Just a few days ago, really in Israel and just a few hours before that attack from Iran. And I think we've got to start there, John. Even since you've been here in studio with us, you've been to Israel multiple times. At this point, you've been speaking around the country.

You've been talking with students and you've obviously seen what's been going on college campuses. But you were there to show your support and maybe just give us a bit of a brief kind of recap of what all went down when you were over there. Yeah, nice to see you, Logan. After OK came out and Israel shared it on their social media.

I got thousands of emails from Israelis and Jewish people who feel abandoned by the arts. And I was on tour. I'm still on tour, but I had a six day break a week ago. And so I went over. I went over to Israel. Some folks asked me to come and I met with some injured troops, jammed with them. I met with many of the hostage families, which is there's no words for that.

Just excruciating. But told them, you know, of course, we have their back. And yeah, I was asked to perform at the hostage square rally every Saturday night in the middle of Tel Aviv. They have a big rally to support the hostages. Hostage families speak. Thousands of people come. And before that, before the performance, I heard an announcement I'd never heard before Logan. The announcement was this. In event of a missile attack, please shelter in place. Lay on the ground and cover your heads. And I'd never heard that before.

But here's the crazy thing. Nobody left. Nobody.

Nobody left. That just shows you that the kind of fortitude of the Israeli people. But it was an honor to sing OK and Superman for them to say some words.

It really reminded me of my performance at the concert for New York to look into their eyes and, you know, see their pain. And you're right. When we when I walked off stage, they said, you know, airspace is closed.

You need to be in your hotel, in your safe room by 11 o'clock. And and yeah, me and my son kind of rode out the Iranian attack and shout out to the Iron Dome or we may not be talking right now. Yeah, I think that's an amazing story, but also an amazing piece of technology that has been really showcased over the last few days. As the last few weeks, as we've seen, you know, the attack from Iran, of course, you had people saying, well, I mean, it was an unsuccessful attack.

So technically it's not even an attack. It's nothing. But you were there. You heard those warnings. Jordan, you've been there.

You've heard those warnings. And I've been to Israel before, but not during wartime. When you hear these stories, I know it sure, I'm sure it brings back some memories for you, too.

Yeah, but John, I was going to ask you, because you were there uniquely at a time. This is the first time Iran throughout its history and Islamic Revolution there since 1979, they use their proxies and Hamas and Hezbollah and Houthi rebels and everyone. But they have never fired directly from their own country into Israel. And then we saw, of course, Israel fire back. And while it was a big failure by Iran in the sense that, like you said, all those systems worked.

I mean, I think you realize maybe now looking back, you were there for a very unique moment in history, which I don't think we've seen play out yet at all. Because when Israel fired back, what they fired back was very strategically and they kind of showed Iran, see, we can stop your weapons. You can't stop ours. And look where we put ours. We put ours right next to your nuclear facility. We put it right next to your military base just to show you what happens if you keep taking these kind of steps. Will it escalate? Does it de-escalate?

We don't know yet. But certainly I think to live through that experience, it had to be something, again, historic in one sense and also extremely unique to know that all those systems were firing. So when you were at your hotel, were you taken to a specific room inside the hotel, like in a shelter? We were in Tel Aviv, so we were kind of the furthest from Iran. And we had every hotel has a safe room on each floor. Every building.

I didn't know this. Every building house in Israel has a safe room by law. They also had a big safe room in the basement.

So we were prepared to either walk across the hallway or go down to the basement. But I think you're right, Jordan. When they said ballistic missiles were being fired. Look, I brought my son with me. My wife did not want him to go.

He's 24. He could make up his own mind. And look, you're right, because the Iron Dome works so well, people kind of shrug it off. But look, they were firing at Jerusalem.

OK, so this was a civilian attack. And I think people need to understand that. You know, I was texting with Mark Levin. You know, he was in Jerusalem. I was worried about him.

So I think I think people are kind of understating it. But yeah, I'm really glad now that things are well and I'm back in the States that I was there because I saw, you know, quickly through my whole trip the unique fortitude of the Israeli people and also their ability to find joy and compassion and live their lives under this imminent threat. After the performance, my entourage wanted to go to dinner. They're like, we have a reservation. I'm like, guys, the bombing starts in three hours. And they're like, yeah, three hours. We got two and a half hours.

Who does that? You know, so to kind of see, you know, and immerse myself in the Israeli culture, I've changed. I've changed, you know, being there just for five days. So I'm glad I was there. And you're right. There's this has a long way to go.

But I look forward to going back. And I really am glad that an artist, American non-Jewish artist was able to speak to the country and let them know that they're not abandoned because they feel they are. And in many respects from the music business, they have been.

I want to talk to you about that, too. Obviously, we've seen the protests on campuses, especially this week. But also last time you were here, we were kind of heading into awards season. It was February. We were we were talking about the Grammys were coming up and what was going to be said or the Oscars was anything going to be said.

Or a few months even removed from that now. And again, it feels like the entertainment industry other than a handful of you. And I would say to be a very selective group of people who I follow and engage with on social media, some of like you have become friends who are out there still speaking out. And I know you have been trying to sort of rally the entertainment troops, if you will. How's that process going now, seeing the chaos that's breaking out in the streets of America?

You know, as I said last time, it's a historic shame. You know, it feels like me and David Draymond are like, you know, the two musketeers. Certainly in in Hollywood, there's some champions. Debra Messing has been a great supporter, me and by Alec. So there's there's at least a little bit of momentum on the acting side.

But yeah, it makes no sense. The moral cowardice of the music industry and the moral cowardice of musicians. Now, I did hear I haven't heard it yet that Barbra Streisand put out a song about anti-Semitism. So if that's the case, props to her.

Thank her for that leadership. But yeah, I'm working now more with Ukrainian artists. I met many Israeli artists over there. I met with Edan Reichel.

I met with Danny Sanderson. So many Ukrainian artists into this, Iranian artists, dissidents are into this. So hopefully America will wake up. But, you know, I think it's really a reflection of of America right now.

You know, Anthony Blinken said if Israel doesn't change their ways, that they may become indistinguishable from Hamas. So when you have that kind of leadership and that kind of despicable rhetoric from your leadership in America, it gives, I think, license to many of these artists in the media and everybody who either wants to slam Israel for the genocidal work they're doing or remain quiet. So the whole thing of my song, We Are Not OK, I think we see that every day in all these institutions on the Hill, in media, the music industry. And now, of course, on our college campuses.

Just this morning, I was reached out to by the Columbia Jewish Alumni Association. And I look forward to going to campus and walking through the bullies and playing OK, just like I have been every night on my tour. So it's time to go on offense. You know, I think a lot of Jewish folks and Jews have been kind of on defense and they don't want to push back. It's not in their nature.

But, you know, like you guys, you guys fight the good fight every day. And I think we need to take it to take it to the bullies, because at the end of the day, that's all they are. They're bullies. They're brainwashed kids. They think they're virtue signaling.

You know, they want to cosplay Hamas. So I think you stand up to them. And, you know, I think we can turn this thing around.

Absolutely, John. And we'll make sure we put links up for everything to make sure people you're on the road right now. I was curious, really about a minute and a half left here, but you're on the road as fine for fighting, performing, playing OK in these sets. How is the audience receiving this? Because I think the problem that maybe we're seeing in the media is the portrayal of the average American. And I have a feeling on the road it's maybe a different story.

Good question and a great experience I've had. Certainly Jewish people come up and say thank you. But I think what's more interesting and possibly more important is people who are not Jews and people who may be on the fence. I talk about the fact that one of the heroes of my video is a Palestinian woman. I talk about this is good versus evil.

I talk about this is generational. Those who want to protect civilization against those who want to turn it down, tear it down. And after the show, so many people come to me who, again, may not be quite as clear on this as us. And what they say is, thank you for standing up for good. They don't say thank you for standing up for Israel. They say thank you for standing up for good. And I think that's the message we need to take.

This is much bigger than Israel and Hamas. And that's one thing I'm trying to push through. So it's been really good.

Of course, there's been some college students who throw a tantrum and say you never can come back. But that goes with the territory. So tonight I play Sacramento. We'll see how it goes.

I was just up in Washington, Portland, very liberal cities. But they get it, man. We'll see you, John. Thank you. Go to Five for Fighting. Visit them.

Go see them on tour. We'll be right back. Welcome back.

We'll be right back to your phone calls to 1-800-684-3110. So we talked to Ella about what's going on overseas. It's interesting to hear him, again, talk about his experience as an entertainer being there when Iran attacked. And again, knowing that this attack was coming, people would still be out in the streets until a certain time because Israel was tracking these weapons, tracking these launches. And yes, people at a certain point, they were going to go to their safe places. But until then, life was going to be life.

And you weren't going to cancel everything kind of thing. So again, it tells you it's a different part of the world. And it's why sometimes when you watch the news, you have to be careful, too, when you're watching news, even from a pro-Israel perspective, that you do have to understand the differences. That people, when they're living like this all the time, are going to come across differently as well. Now, I know that people also want to talk a little bit about the trial so far in New York, what's moving on there.

Just to give people an update yet again, so if you're just joining us, this is day two. Now, day two is mostly going to focus on did President Trump violate any of the gag orders put on him about talking about witnesses or the judge's family? Not the judge himself, but the judge's family. The reason why his family even became an issue is because his daughter runs a big fundraising organization, a Democrat fundraising organization, Logan, that is fundraised for not just New York candidates, but some who have impeached Donald Trump like Adam Schiff.

So what is she able to use? Well, her dad's own trial. So I mean, again, the fact that President Trump can't just say that without facing potentially jail, but at least a thousand dollar fine for each time.

That's what we're talking about here. So I think some of these gag order challenges, if they are too aggressive on the prosecution side, this is how they could end up in federal court because of First Amendment issues. And you put gag orders in there way too broad, and suddenly this case gets totally stalled out on these issues. And that's why, again, President Trump, they're not showing the court case.

You're not getting audio, you're not getting video. So all of this comes down to is what reporter do you believe in their take on the trial that day? They may ultimately get past that issue today and back to some of the more substantive issues, and that would be the continued testimony of David Packer. Yeah, we'll continue to follow that and give you guys updates. It obviously would be much more entertaining if we could see it. Unfortunately, we can't.

You know, I think that in a good one sense, it might be good for the American people. Man, it would be. Because that would be wall to wall. I mean, the first few days is earlier because of Passover, but after that it was going to go till at least five every day. It was Passover.

And can we say why the other reason was? Was that public, the reason the dental, there was a, the juror had a dental appointment, so they had to stop a little earlier than normal. Okay, this is where we are right now in America. Let's go ahead and take some phone calls. Charlie's calling from California online too, watching on Facebook. Charlie, you're on the air, and thanks. I know you called yesterday, so I appreciate you calling back because we didn't get to you. Go ahead.

Yeah, thank you for all of what you do. On the student protesters, you know, I'm only 61 years old. I was baptized a Catholic. I'm not educated on religions. I have never seen a Jewish group or individual protest, harm anyone, or start a war. So why the hatred? Yeah, well listen, I think you go back, you could ask that about World War II, you could ask that about Hitler.

You're using people as scapegoats. Now, in the Middle East, there's even a different issue though. You've of course got, you've had, there's always been a history of anti-Semitism, Russian anti-Semitism by the Soviets as well. But the Middle East specifically, it's a land issue too. The Muslims believe this is their land. And you go back to even Biblical texts, like you said, and these Biblical texts of, well if you read the Quran, this person's life. And actually, if you read the Quran, it's going to be kind of clear that actually this was the Jewish land and they were there.

But that being said, these are land disputes that have gone on for thousands of years that right now are being politicized. And Logan, I think in a sense too, it's like cool right now to be pro-Hamas. Yeah, exactly. It's becoming the trendy thing to do on college campuses.

At least to be anti-Israel. Or at least again, it may be a small group of people, but they are a small group of people that are very loud. Very loud, very violent, and can shut down a campus in a day. Right, can take down Columbia University.

In one day. To just not only say, hey, we're calling it for the day, hey, we're calling it for a week, we're calling it for the rest of the semester. And the rest of the semester, we're going to remote learning, essentially like Jordan said, like back in the early COVID times. That is what's happening on these college campuses because they're being overtaken and they don't know what to do. I think that's obviously a problem too. And we need to actually come up with, help them maybe with some guidelines of what they can do to protect their student body. Because this can't be the way it is from now on. If there's a divisive issue, we can take over your company, we can take over your school, shut it down.

Just can't be the way it is. Let's continue on taking some calls. Lisa's calling in Idaho. Listen on the radio, but I'll hold about 40 minutes. So I really appreciate it, Lisa.

You're up. Hey, my only thought is on all these protests that going on, they have the people holding up the sign saying death to America. Why is that not against the law in, I'm sorry, in the United States? Why is, we have people in our country saying death to America? Why are they here? Why are we allowing it? Why aren't they being, hey, rounded up and sent home? You don't have to be here.

Well, I mean, it depends. If they are U.S. citizens, they can, they have freedom of speech. So they can make those statements. I don't know if all these protesters are U.S. citizens. I would imagine many of them are.

Many of them are, or at least permanent residents, because, again, you've seen a mass member. You forget that when we have these wars like Afghanistan and Iraq, and Syria too with ISIS, you have influxes of migrants who may have been happy with America at that time because we were fighting their enemy. But then when they see America standing with Israel, they get upset. So even though America may have done something good for them and even brought them here legally, and they're here legally, they're not always so educated in the ideas of freedom of expression. The idea is that you can have very strong views and you can express them without violence, right next to each other.

That seems to be something we're losing touch with in the United States of America. It does not feel like a country anymore where if you really have an actual debate between someone who is very much pro-Israel and, let's say, someone who is very much pro-Palestinian, that the crowd and the rhetoric turns hate-filled. It's why there's discussion of whether there will even be Presidential debates this go-round.

Can we even debate anymore as a country, or is it just hate? Right. Let's continue on. Last call of the day, James is calling from New Mexico.

Listen on Sirius XM. So, James, welcome. Thank you. Thank you, Jay. Thank you all for providing this forum.

I'm a Native American Apache from Mescalero, New Mexico. Very upset, angry about what's all been going on from all quadrants of America. And I'm just wondering what can we do? I mean, legislatively, it seems like the only pressure we can get is on the President. And I'm fed up with the fool.

I'm sorry. Well, you know, there's been some good moves. And listen, this is what we can do. One, you shut down the BDS movement on college campuses. States have done a great job at doing that. There can be more done, but many states have done that. Both liberal and conservative states have made those schools. You can't get federal funds if you do boycott, divestment, and sanction of Israel.

Also, you can make it wrong. You can call out this violence that has occurred this week of Passover. I didn't see Jews doing this when Ramadan began. Did you see Jewish protesters trying to ruin Ramadan for Muslims in America?

No. In fact, they would probably celebrate alongside them. But what are they doing?

They're ruining Passover for Jews. Hey, we only have about 20 seconds left. I'm just going to take this 20 seconds to encourage you. Go to ACLJ.org. Support the work of the ACLJ. You heard what we're doing in court. You also heard what we're doing in Israel and supporting. You heard from John.

You heard from an amazing group of people, Rick, today. We can't do that without your support. We can't put this broadcast on the air without you. So we need you right now. ACLJ.org. We'll talk to you tomorrow.