Walz Runs Scared, Won’t Face the Truth

Today on Sekulow on the campaign trail, Tim Walz runs scared and won't face the truth. 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. Welcome to Sekulow.

We are taking your calls to 1-800-684-3110. Now, over the holiday weekend, of course you had politicians out, they were at state fairs. That doesn't mean, of course, you're not going to get tough questions, especially because of that unfortunate incident where Hamas exchanged the bodies while there were six Israeli hostages. And while the IDF had entered the tunnels to hopefully bring those hostages home safely, Hamas got word of that, realized that, killed all six hostages. So these were not hostages that were killed before and that their bodies were being kept as like an exchange. They were literally alive the day before the mission to get them released. And so you have six hostages. One of them is a well-known because his parents spoke at the DNC and not for political purposes, but because he's also an American citizen.

His first name was Hirsch. And again, just to underscore that there's still 100 more hostages. About, I think, 60 or so of those that they still believe are alive, maybe even more than that. But again, you see what Hamas does even when hostages are alive. This is, of course, all in that Rafah area, which the left has said as a no-go zone. There are massive protests were ongoing this weekend in New York in favor, anti-Israel protests.

We'll talk about that, too. Jeff Balaban is back in Israel. But I want to play this moment from Tim Walz. He's running to be vice President. This was big news. Now, listen, he's at a state fair. I'm not expecting him to take this question and give a 20-minute response on peace in the Middle East. But what he should be able to do very quickly is to say, you know what, that is horrendous what happened to those individuals.

No, this is horrendous violence. Praying for those families and that we would get those hostages need to be released and kind of condemn Hamas. That'd be it.

It'd be like 30 seconds or less. But instead, his staff and he, they run away when they get the question. Let's play it for everybody. We've got the video if you're watching the show today. What's your reaction to the six hostages being found dead in Kabul?

Thanks, everybody. So if you can, I really do believe he could hear it because he looked over. He acknowledged it.

He looked right over. Now, we know they don't like taking questions from journalists. That wasn't like a time when journalists were necessarily going to get their questions answered. But it was a moment he could have kind of ended things quickly for the campaign that he represents now with Harris as well. If he would have put out just a quick sentence or two right then and he would have had to go to Twitter later or X and then put out a response.

I think the only reason he did that, Will, was because of the video. It got a lot of attention and people saw it all over the country and the world. People saw it in Israel. He tweeted later in the day, the anguish of losing a child is something no family should have to endure. Gwen and I send our deepest condolences to the Goldberg Poland family after Hamas's murder of their son, Hirsch.

Hamas is a brutal terrorist organization and we condemn their continued atrocities against both Americans and Israelis in the strongest possible terms. That is especially that last part of that sentence, that tweet. He could have said right there and then still walked away to get on to other events in his schedule.

But instead you saw him freeze, stare the journalist in the eyes and a staffer had to come rescue him as he is whisked away, avoiding the question from the press once again. You didn't have to be an expert. You didn't have to have an expert opinion.

Your advisors didn't need to craft the statement for you and it would have been done. But this idea of not talking to the press, running away from the press, it looks like it's not just Harrits but it's Walz as well. And this idea that we can again handle it on social media later. But you look as if you were running away even from the easiest, it wasn't really a question, but easy statements to make in favor of our allies.

But they're afraid they'll go too far and upset their leftist base. We'll be right back on Sekulow. Take your calls. Welcome back to Sekulow. We will take your calls to 1-800-684-3110.

That's 1-800-684-3110. So again, Tim Walz, running scared. Similar to Harris, it's like if the question's not pre-sent, if it's not pre-done by CNN, even if it's something simple like an American was killed by a terror group after being taken hostage for nearly a year. You had his family speak at the DNC and while it might not have been the greatest setting to be at the Minnesota State Fair, it's a simple question where you condemn and you call on Hamas to release the remaining hostages, including American hostages, alive. But you condemn the loss of life and you condemn the terror organization. You don't have to run away from a question like that. You also don't have to give people a 15-minute explanation on exactly how you're going to get there to any of those points. Now, if you're Harris running for President, usually in that situation you might put together, especially after the holiday weekend, maybe a formal statement or press conference, have the press come together.

Of course, that then begs the question, would you allow them to ask questions to talk about the process? But they're still putting it on Joe Biden as if he is somehow going to convince Hamas to sign a ceasefire. We've seen these lists time and time again, Will, where Israel has agreed over and over and over again to multiple ceasefires, some of which have not been so popular with the people of Israel, but the government realized it was important if the hostages were released. It is Hamas who has refused to agree to any ceasefire. So when people say they want the fighting and the shooting and the killing to end in Gaza, it would if Hamas released the hostages and abided by one of these multiple ceasefires that the U.S. and Israel have agreed to implement. The fact that 11 months in that Hamas still has hostages alive is surprising in and of itself. But the fact that the Biden-Harris administration continues to push for the ceasefire when they know that American citizens are still being held. This wasn't one of these six that was executed by Hamas when they found out that Israel was going to do a raid on a tunnel.

It was 65 feet below the surface of the ground. And Israel had a successful rescue of a hostage just about a week and a half ago. The fact that they found out this was happening, they changed their modus operandi and they decided to execute the hostages instead of taking them with them or just leaving them be.

And the fact that this is the tweet from Vice President Harris, from her official account, she says, Today, POTUS and I met with the U.S. hostage deal negotiation team. The murder of Hersh Goldberg Poland and five other hostages was a brutal, barbaric act by Hamas terrorists. As POTUS said, Hamas leaders will pay for these crimes. It is long past time for a ceasefire and a hostage deal. We need to bring the hostages home and end the suffering in Gaza. They're still playing this equivalency game that Israel has to stop and we have to get the hostages home. It is always blame Israel for these acts when they happen, these atrocities, these executions by a terrorist group. It's Israel's fault.

Where were these hostages? Rafah, the place that Israel had been hamstrung by the U.S. government from going into for months. And now when they're sending in these teams, Hamas has had plenty of time to figure out what their strategy is when Israel goes in to rescue these hostages. The fact there are four Americans still being held that they believe are alive, the Biden-Harris administration should be doing everything to get them home instead of every single time they talk about this, talking about a ceasefire. We have no idea why the U.S. has continued to pressure Israel to accept these ceasefire deals. Israel does and then the U.S. and its allies are not able to get Hamas to accept the deal. So you put Israel in this spot where they go first, even if it's not popular domestically, even if they're giving up a lot with agreeing to these ceasefires, and it sometimes makes them look weak by agreeing to these ceasefires. And then they go to Hamas who they say has been wrecked and the Palestinian people just want this to end. If they really did, don't you think the people would be putting more pressure on Hamas to accept these ceasefires so that their life wasn't so bad, so that there wasn't a continued conflict with Israel, but yet time and time, I mean it's more than three, I think it's four or five times there have been serious ceasefires on the table which Israel has accepted, the U.S. or other international parties have put forward.

Israel has accepted the terms of and Hamas will not accept. And this is what I think you have to kind of put together here because we even hear it from Adam Schiff. Adam Schiff is now running for U.S. Senate in California, so he wants to sound tough on Israel, but even when he wants to sound tough as a supporter of the Jewish state of Israel, because again that's going to be important for him in California. You've also got the liberal activist vote in California that you don't want to lose if you're Adam Schiff, so you have to make these statements that sound really tough about Israel being tough, strong, except for the fact that you're hamstringing Israel in the same statement.

Take a listen to how tough Adam Schiff sounds in this statement and what he ultimately concludes it. Well, when I heard the news last night, I felt sick. I am just absolutely heartbroken for Hirsch's family, for the families of these other hostages that were butchered by these Hamas terrorists, and it just is hard to wrap your head around.

I think we all came to know Hirsch through his family, and it's just devastating. And these sons of bitches who did this ought to be hunted down and brought to justice no matter how long that takes. I hope and pray, I think as we all do, that there's a negotiated end to this war and soon, and that not another innocent person loses their life. Now listen, I don't know how you can hunt all of those down with a ceasefire that stops all conflict. Now, I'm not saying that people in Israel, there's a group right now who really does want a ceasefire, they want these hostages home, they want tough negotiations by Netanyahu, they want this conflict that they think even if it needs to end, not totally in their favor to get the remaining hostages home alive, they're willing to do that. There's another group in Israel that would like to just kind of go in there and do kind of what Adam Schiff talks about, Will, but those two statements also really don't work together. You can't, on the one hand, say that you're going to get those guys wherever you find them, but it takes as long as out to bring them to justice no matter how long it takes. And on the other hand, say you want to end the conflict now, because those people that you're fighting that you are going to try and target who killed these hostages are the exact people that you have to negotiate an end to the war with.

When I heard the statement back to back, it's unedited. He literally says we have to bring those to justice that did this, they ought to be hunted down and brought to justice no matter how long it takes, and then says, ah, and I hope and pray, as I think we all do, there's a negotiated end to this war soon. A negotiated end to this war means that Hamas is negotiating to end the war. And what will Hamas negotiate into any sort of actual ceasefire that would be brought to fruition? There is no justice for those that put a gun to the back of these hostages' head and pulled the trigger. They executed them in cold blood after holding them for 11 months as a hostage in Gaza. You can't say those two things back to back with a straight face like Adam Schiff just did. Joe Biden is saying that Prime Minister Netanyahu is not doing enough to free hostages, but I don't know of any ceasefires, at least the ones that we've seen publicly put forward by the United States, all of these ceasefires, the terms were accepted by Israel, and yet it was Hamas who would not accept the terms of the deal to get the hostages returned.

And by the way, are we going to really count? This was not returning hostages. This was the IDF attempt to rescue hostages, and as soon as Hamas figured out that they were close by, 48 hours away from being able to carry out this rescue, like Will said, think about it, they kept these people alive for 11 months and then shot them in the head 48 hours before they would have been rescued, just so Israel was only able to bring back bodies in a successful mission to get to the individuals. Unfortunately, because you're dealing with Hamas, before they flee, they kill those hostages.

They leave the bodies behind for Israel to find as they flee through their tunnels, and I think that is an important part of this as well. I do want to thank a lot of folks, too, because on behalf of everyone here at the ACLJ and our clients who need our help, we want to give you all a heartfelt thank you. We've been truly blessed with your generosity through our Life and Liberty Drive the last couple of months, and it was a big push-up through the weekend. To our ACLJ champions, we want to express our gratitude for your ongoing support of the American Center for Long Justice, and because of you, we have successfully defended Bible studies and religious gatherings in California. We can continue fighting in court to protect pro-life sinners in Massachusetts. We can fight for the right of teachers to pray.

We've successfully secured the right of seniors to hold Bible studies in over a dozen cases. We continue fighting our case at the U.S. Supreme Court to defend pro-life counselors, and we not only secured the right of a forklift driver to go to church on Sunday, but he got a raise in the process. Through your continued support, we'll be able to fight back on the battles we know are coming. We will have to be prepared for what could happen if Harris wins in November, obviously, so if you can, please become an ACLJ champion at ACLJ.org. I want to thank all of you. All right, folks, welcome back to Secchia.

We're joined by a good friend of ours. This one we work with very closely with these whistleblower cases. You know Tristan Levitt from Empower Oversight. To check them out, empoweroversight.org. Tristan, it was interesting because over this past holiday, the oversight judiciary, the Ways and Means committees, they did release their report on their impeachment inquiry, finding that Joe Biden has committed these impeachable offenses. Now, we've seen changes politically that lead me to believe that's not going to go very far, so there hasn't been a lot of attention on these findings by these committees, but you specifically pointed out the number of times within these impeachment reports, two of the whistleblowers you're working with at the IRS, how much they come up inside the reports. I mean, tell people about that, because we don't want to miss out on the fact that there was a lot of research done, a lot of good information found in these reports, not just saying to impeach Joe Biden, but also about your clients and these IRS whistleblowers that people have heard from before. Again, they've heard from Shapley, they've heard from Ziegler before, and it's pretty astonishing how much they are mentioned inside these reports.

Yeah, so IRS Special Agent, or Supervisory Special Agent Gary Shapley gets mentioned, as well as Joe Ziegler, each of them about 120 times each almost, and that's not a surprise. We know that there was reporting last summer that Republicans felt that the testimony that those IRS whistleblowers brought forward was a key part of being willing to further investigate other allegations of corruption against the Biden family, so it's not surprising, lots of evidence that those whistleblowers were brought forward at that time, and then in subsequent tranches of documents that they submitted to Congress, but it was gratifying for them to see that certainly the information they brought forward had been relied upon. Of course, they just want to make sure that they're protected for doing what they did. Tristan, this idea too of their protection, where does that stand right now for the IRS whistleblowers? I mean, the idea is they came forward, they provided this information, and now that Joe Biden is no longer running for a second term, I think obviously there's going to be a very different calculation on impeachment.

I don't think that this Republican House is going to try and move the way Democrats did and impeach him out of office, like they did with President Trump, which was a totally bogus kind of impeachment without the Chief Justice even there. But where does it stand for these two IRS whistleblowers and their lives? Are they able to return back, or have they gotten their lives back together since blowing the whistle on these issues?

They're still working at the IRS. There has been a lot of retaliation there. We're working with the Office of Special Counsel, my former agency, to try and address that specific retaliation. One of the big things that, of course, there's no undoing is that they were taken off of the Hunter Biden case, and at the heart of that is David Weiss retaliating, you know, pushing the IRS to take actions against these guys. But the biggest thing that's really been a threat to them over this period of time, that's really chilled a lot of whistleblowing, is that after they came forward, Hunter Biden filed a lawsuit, he's required to file it against the IRS, not against the individuals specifically, but the lawsuit is all about his allegations that they broke taxpayer secrecy laws. And we were extremely careful to go by the book with the whistleblower provisions of those taxpayer secrecy laws. What we didn't anticipate was that when that lawsuit came forward, rather than treating it in a normal manner where it goes to a certain program within the Justice Department called the Federal Programs Division, instead, the ones who were assigned to defend, quote unquote, that lawsuit is DOJ's Tax Division. And they're one of the very offices that whistleblowers blew the whistle on. And so what we found is that they have not very vigorously defended in this lawsuit.

And so we have been moving to try and intervene in that case. We have been trying to raise the arguments that the Justice Department hasn't raised. The Justice Department's first response to Hunter Biden's lawsuit didn't mention at all the statutory exception, that part of the law that protects whistleblowers.

They just ignored that altogether. And so it's become really clear that between Hunter Biden on the one side and the IRS and DOJ on the other, none of them are looking out for these whistleblowers' interests. And we are very concerned about that because these guys, if there is a finding that they, if DOJ just decides to take a dive and say, OK, well, we'll just admit that we broke taxpayer secrecy laws.

These guys are the ones who will suffer the consequences. Tristan, what we've seen from the Biden-Harris administration has been vast repercussions and retaliation against whistleblowers, whether it be from the FBI, from the DOJ, from TSA, as we're seeing them now open investigations into the Quiet Skies program, not because of them violating civil rights of Americans, but because of how did this information get out. And then also with the IRS whistleblowers, as you've mentioned there as well. But we have oral argument in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals for Agent O'Boyle from the FBI.

But also at the same time that that's October 15th for us. So we're still fighting in court, but you at Empower Oversight are also still fighting to strengthen the protections of these whistleblowers as a result of what we've seen from the Biden-Harris administration. Could you tell us a little bit more about your role in fighting for enhanced protections? Yeah, so last year after I testified alongside Garrett and then our other clients, Marcus Allen and Steve Friend, one of the major follow ups from that, and my testimony is just all about how they needed to strengthen the laws on whistleblower protection for FBI employees. That was one of my kind of legacy projects when I worked on Capitol Hill. We got some things accomplished in 2016, others we weren't able to.

And so after I left the Hill, then there were parts of those that were pushed, but there were still there's still a lot that need to happen. So we've been very grateful to partner with ACLJ on pushing these changes. And so later this month, I'll be testifying again before the weaponization committee with Marcus Allen and Inspector General Michael Horowitz from the Justice Department will also testify. And we just really want to push that for the FBI to be protected for those agents, they ought to be treated the same as other employees, whether they're agents or whether it's janitor at the FBI. There's no reason for them to be excluded from the Office of Special Counsel being able to investigate their case like they would for TSA, like they are for the IRS whistleblowers. And then one of the things we've talked about in the show before is also overturning the Supreme Court case Navy versus Egan. So that using security clearances as a means to retaliate by just yanking those from these guys is something that the Merit Systems Protection Board can review. So those are two major changes that we think Congress needs to make, and we've been really happy to partner with ACLJ on pushing those.

And Tristan, I just want to make it clear for everybody, Congress, the courts have come down with decisions we don't like and don't agree with. Congress could make those changes, the President could sign them into law, and these whistleblowers from these specific agencies would have much more protection. So if you want to get more information about our government, regardless of if it's the Republican Party or the Democrat Party who's in charge of the White House or Congress or the House or the Senate, we need to support these laws because ultimately they need the protections so that they don't have to worry that their lives are going to be destroyed, or their careers especially, because if you yank those security clearances, almost everything they've worked for to move into the private sector is gone.

Exactly, exactly. And it becomes more and more common as Congress has strengthened the normal whistleblower protections for a lot of agencies, they've turned to using clearances as a way to retaliate instead, and we've certainly seen that in the FBI, so I hope we can make a difference there. Some things will fall short of that on Quiet Skies, some news you'll be happy to hear is that we've heard the TSA has closed its retaliatory investigation into our air marshal whistleblowers, brought forward the information on Tulsi Gabbard, we're verifying to make sure that's true, but that's a success. But again, TSA has these stronger whistleblower protections than the FBI does, and that needs to change.

Yeah, exactly. If the TSA has got the strong whistleblower protections like Tristan said, so does the FBI. These are all law enforcement agencies that should be working together, and if they've got to blow the whistle on something, and they do it appropriately, they follow the rules, they should be protected. Tristan, as always, we appreciate you. Go to empoweroversight.org, and folks, we get a big thank you to everyone who helped us during our life at Liberty Drive over the last two months, get to those resources as well, and to our ACLJ champions who choose to donate automatically monthly to the ACLJ. A big thank you to ACLJ champions.

We always encourage you to find out more about what the ACLJ is doing, all of the work that we're doing across the country and the world at ACLJ.org, and if you want to become an ACLJ champion, you can always do that at ACLJ.org. Thank you. Keeping you informed and engaged, now more than ever, this is Sekulow.

And now your host, Jordan Sekulow. So if you're just joining us on the broadcast, you might see that the title of the broadcast, if you're watching, was that Tim Wallace is running scared and won't face the truth. And I want to explain for you, if you had just heard last segment and we were talking to Tristan Levitt about whistleblowers, and we talked about some other issues, this happened over the weekend at the Minnesota State Fair. It's after the IDF was on the trail to be able to release, get to the release or the rescue of six hostages, Israeli hostages, one who was an American Israeli. You remember his parents spoke at the DNC, and again, it wasn't a political, it was a, you know, you would go anywhere for your kids to get that kind of national or international attention on their situation. And at the time that they gave that speech, he was alive. But with somewhere between 48 hours or so before the IDF working through those tunnel systems in Rafah, inside Gaza, was able to get to these six hostages, not only did the Hamas terrorists who were keeping these hostages flee, but they also decided to shoot each one of them in the head to kill all six.

That includes an American citizen. So when Tim Wallace is asked this at the Minnesota State Fair, I know he's not in a formal setting, he might, he did not need, I don't expect him to give some entire speech on Israel's conflict post October 7th with Hamas, but I think he could have said something because he knows that family, because they were at the DNC, where he got the vice Presidential nomination, but instead he stares at a reporter and runs away, and then ultimately puts something up, or his staff does, on to X. But take a listen or watch, if you're watching the show, we've got the video as well. What's your reaction to the six hostages being found in Gaza?

Thanks everybody. Okay, so you see right there, he knew what it was said. I don't think the tweet would have gone up later, it looked bad. All it would have taken, I tweeted it out, I think Sean Hannity retweeted it well, it was just a simple condemnation of Hamas, and again a reminder that Israel has accepted cease fires and Hamas refuses to. And today, I think it was Biden who came out continuing criticism of Israel, yet it is Israel who continues to accept the cease fires that Hamas has refused.

Every cease fire proposed to Hamas, they have refused to accept and Israel has accepted. That's right, and I think we should play President Joe Biden's, this video, this was on the White House lawn, so if you're listening there's a little bit of that helicopter sound you'll hear in the background, but let's go ahead and play this, because this is the first really we're hearing from him after he was escorted out of the building of the DNC, but this is what President Joe Biden had to say by two. Are you planning to present a final hostage field for both sides this week? We're very close to that. What makes you think that this deal will be successful in a way that the other deals were not?

Both friends are eternal. Mr. President, do you think it's time for Prime Minister Netanyahu to do more on this issue? Do you think he's doing enough? No. Okay, I mean, he just says no. Doesn't give us any reasons why no. This is just after, well I mean, the IDF goes in to rescue hostages and finds them with bullet holes in their heads. Right. And is Israel not doing enough?

Maybe they can't wait. Well and also, didn't Secretary Blinken go out and praise Israel for agreeing once again to a cease fire just last week? Yeah. And that this was, Israel has agreed to the cease fire, but yet Hamas didn't accept it. So once again, that's Israel's fault?

Yeah. What else can they give up at this point in these cease fires? Every time they agree to a cease fire, they're giving more and more up. And Hamas is saying no. Now remember, in the middle of this, Hamas has been taken over by its militant wing that we knew was running Hamas for real, because the rest of Hamas was hanging out in Doha until they decided to go to a swearing-in in Tehran, and their lives did not last too much longer after that, which has been good news. I think it's asserted Israel's role again on the international stage. Jeff Balaban, of course, who directs ACLJ Jerusalem, is going to be joining us live from Jerusalem in the next segment of the broadcast. A big thank you to all who donated during our Life in Liberty drive. We pushed you hard, folks.

We really did those last few days last week, and you responded, and just a huge thank you. We'll be right back on Secula. Welcome back to Secula. We are joined by Jeff Balaban, who oversees ACLJ Jerusalem and Jeff back in Israel. Jeff, an interesting time to return to Israel because of what happened over the weekend.

Of course, could you first give us a reaction? I was talking to friends here who have family in Israel as well. There's kind of two feelings going on within the country that you can have at the same time, that you can also have at different times, but after the news, right before the IDF was able to rescue these hostages, one who was very high profile because he was also an American citizen, that had been held for 11 months by Hamas.

Hamas knows they're about to be rescued, and on their way of trying to flee the IDF, they put a bullet hole in each of those hostages' heads. Look, the feeling here is genuine anguish. It's hard to really convey how much of a sense of unity and family there is here. That doesn't mean there's not a lot of bickering and fighting in politics.

There is. It's a country. It's millions of people. But there is a sense of unity in the pain and anguish, and it manifests in different ways. And some of it manifests politically, and some of that's being taken advantage of right now. But here on the ground, that's really what brings everyone together, is a sense that family members have just been executed, people that people have been praying for every day for almost a year now, and in a moment of hope, this devastating news really has devastated the whole country. I mean, I read this Wall Street Journal editorial board opinion piece, just the headline, and the headline kind of sums up everything for Israel in just a few words.

Hamas murders six hostages. Israel is blamed. And that's what we see from our current President of the United States, Joe Biden, right now. We saw Tim Walz run away from the question. And there's an American involved here with Hersh, and his family spoke at the DNC, and you'd think that Tim Walz obviously saw that, probably has met them, and yet flees from having to answer questions. Even a simple condemnation would have sufficed and wouldn't have been a news story.

But yet, this headline, I think it does say it. I mean, Hamas can murder Israelis, and yet it's still, Joe Biden is blaming the Israelis for their murder. Well, this has been the case, Jordan, from the beginning, which is he pays a small amount of lip service to supporting Israel, and that Israel is in the right to defend itself, but then spends 99 percent of his time inciting against Israel, blaming Israel, and tying Israel's hands. Remember, there was this global Eyes on Rafah campaign.

What happened? America, really, America did Hamas's work for them by forcing all the people in Gaza to stay in this one narrow place. Israel wanted them to be able to be let out, which happens in every conflict around the world. And the Biden administration said no, and had them locked in there, and then said, you better not go in, Israel, you better not go in after these hostages.

And Israel said, well, we have to. And Israel went in, despite all the blame, all the yelling, all the condemnations from Biden, from Harris, from Blinken, Israel went in, by the way, achieved the unthinkable. It turns out that perhaps zero non-hostiles were actually killed, and they actually managed to get out hostages. The numbers range from one non-combatant to every 10 terrorists killed, which is astonishing, to possibly zero non-combatants killed.

They went in, but now all of a sudden it's no Eyes on Rafah. Now it's not the problem that these people were taking hostages, raped, abused, tortured, and now murdered, but that Israel's trying to save its remaining hostages, and Israel's to blame. And as you pointed out earlier, you know, BB went on air, I'm sorry, Prime Minister Netanyahu went on television last night to explain to this country that he is in every stage committed more and more and given more and more, and Hamas has said no. And yet Biden, because he knows that all the political pressure matters only on Israel, just puts political pressure on the victims. And Jeff, as we've talked about what the rhetoric from the administration and the pressure that they put on Israel does here at home, Colombia starts back classes today, and we've already seen protests. We saw 7,000 protesters against Israel, pro-Hamas, waving Hamas flags yesterday on Labor Day in New York City at the same time that the families in Israel are mourning the loss of their loved ones that were massacred in a tunnel, a terror tunnel in Gaza. The fact that we see this juxtaposition right now, and we see the continued blame, when last week we saw Secretary Blinken saying Israel has agreed to a ceasefire, but yet Hamas won't. We still see the blame on Israel. I know that for almost a year now we've been saying things look very dark for Israel and the Jewish people, but when you see this stark contrast from what happened over the weekend and then what's happening in New York City today, I don't know that we've really seen the depths of anti-Semitism in this country as it bubbles up. We have not. I guarantee we have not. It is actually a bottomless pit.

There is no depth. There's no end to the depths of this depravity. And we saw it shortly after October 7th, when the excuse given by the brutal atrocities committed on October 7th, almost unthinkable, unimaginable atrocities committed, which were GoPro video cameras and shared on social media, and then celebrated around the world. And now we see after the murder of these innocents, you know, this basically celebration.

Honestly, that's what these protests are. Calls for deal are calls for surrender by Israel. And the notion that the more harm, the more evil you do to a Jew, the more evil you do to an Israeli, the more evil the Jews and the Israelis must be, because that's actually their analysis. We have to justify what's being done here. So every part of this is justifiable. The more evil that's done, the more they hate us and want to murder us.

And I'm not just talking about Israelis, I'm talking about Jews. And that's what's being transmitted. There was a study that came out last week that showed that the more Ivy League and prestigious a college is, the university is, the more of this kind of protest exists, something we really need to look into deeply here, because there is a woke mentality, and obviously this is what dominates the media, and it's what dominates a lot of Democratic politics, and it's what dominates these college campuses. It's horrifying, and we have to hope and pray that it does not represent most normal Americans, and hope and pray that that comes out in this election, because otherwise we are headed for the worst thing we've seen since the Holocaust. We know this. We see it.

We get this bizarre messaging, too. This was Adam Schiff. You know, he's running for Senate now in California. So he comes out with, at first, if you would have cut the statement off halfway, it sounds like a very strong support of Israel. He's angry about what happened about the hostages, and kind of left it at that. You'd think, well, you know, I don't agree with Adam Schiff on almost anything, but wow, maybe he's coming out really strong on this issue.

It's nice to hear, since he likely will end up in the U.S. Senate. But if you listen to the full statement, the first half of the statement and the second part of the statement directly conflict. You just can't have it both ways in this kind of situation where there are live hostages still being held nearly a year later, and a terror group holding them, willing to keep them alive for 11 months and kill them, you know, within 24 hours of their rescue. Let's take a listen to what Adam Schiff had to say. And again, that first part sounds very strong.

The second part just totally conflicts. Well, when I heard the news last night, I felt sick. I am just absolutely heartbroken for Hirsch's family, for the families of these other hostages that were butchered by these Hamas terrorists. And it just is hard to wrap your head around.

I think we all came to know Hirsch through his family. And it's just devastating. And these sons of people who did this ought to be hunted down and brought to justice, no matter how long that takes. I hope and pray, I think as we all do, that there's a negotiated end to this war and soon, and that not another innocent person loses their life. You know, I mean, Jeff, if you cut that statement off, you're so angry, you know, he uses words where you have to bleep out on the air. But then immediately wants a ceasefire, which means, guess what?

You're not going to be able to hunt down those who committed these atrocities, because that would be part of the deal is you're out of Rafah, you're out of these areas, you're no longer going to be able to. Now, again, Israel may ultimately decide to agree to do that, but it's these statements of trying to have it both ways from the Democrat Party. That is, you know, they're so tough, they're so outraged, but yet they also want Israel to completely stop fighting. I got to be honest, Jordan, between Walz is running away from the camera and ignoring it, and this kind of gaslighting by people like Schiff and Blinken and Harris and Biden.

I'm not sure, maybe I prefer Walz, he just walks away like he doesn't care. These guys, they're making, this is, it's a word that's overused, but it's pure gaslighting. They don't care at all. Everything they've done has been against Israel and against these hostages from day one.

Bottom line. Jeff, as always, we appreciate, we're glad you're back in Israel to provide us that insight. Unfortunately, first interview back, not good news to announce, but a sad news at the time again, where a lot of prayers needed for the people of Israel, their leaders to make good decisions while this pressure is going to be on them, for these families too. You know, it reminded me, we represented a number of these families in those situations and did not turn out, you know, with happy endings. And that has been the case of most of the hostages. Some have been released, some have been returned home alive, and they're going through what will be a long time of therapy and trying to get back to some kind of normalcy.

But, you know, most so far have not been able to return home, but we still pray and fight and do everything we can at the ACLJ to get those alive home and to make sure that Israel isn't pressured into any deals that she does not want to be in that are, that are, again, negative to the position of Israel. We'll be right back on Sekulow. Take your calls.

Welcome back to Sekulow. We are taking your calls too at 1-800-684-3110. We do have calls on the line, but let's get to those phone calls. Yeah, let's go ahead and go to Matt calling on line two from Ohio.

Matt, you're on Sekulow. Hi, you know, as a country, we were out to obliterate ISIS because they attacked us, they, you know, unprovoked. Why are we not supporting, as a country, and why are we not supporting Israel to obliterate Hamas? Not Palestinians, but obliterate Hamas. It's a terrorist organization, and yet everyone calls for Israel to always stand down, stand down. Why isn't there some tougher speech saying, wipe them out?

There was. You know, initially, the speech was that Hamas has to be destroyed, and that was actually Israel's position. Many members of Congress on both sides of the aisle had that position as well, but then Israel began the process of destroying Hamas.

And, you know, you point out, Matt, who they are. They're terrorists. So what do terrorists do? Well, they're not like normal soldiers. They're not honorably taking to a battlefield and saying, let's take this out of the neighborhoods. Let's take this out of the civilians. Let's get this away from the kids and the hospitals and the schools and fight this out, you know, soldier against soldier.

That's not how they work. They say, you know what, we're going to put our, we're going to make the hospital the battlefield. We're going to put our command center in the preschool. We're going to put our top terrorist leaders inside neighborhoods. We're going to fire rockets at Israel from high-density, population-wise, apartment buildings. So that whenever Israel has to respond, it has to respond so strategically or else thousands of civilians will be paraded through the streets of Gaza as being injured or killed.

And that's the problem that you deal with. That's the dilemma when the world says go and destroy that terror organization and then realizing destroying a terror organization means really having to take out most of the Gaza Strip, which obviously the world does not support. Well, and to Matt's point as well, during the Obama administration with what was controversial to some, but the drone program that Obama initiated against ISIS, where there were lots of civilian casualties. There were lots of unintended collateral damage from the Obama administration's campaign against ISIS.

And really the only people that were criticizing it was Amnesty International, the far-left pro-peace groups that want no sort of military action by the United States at all. So you'd think that the left would be able to understand that the President of theirs that they put on the biggest pedestal that got the biggest pop from the crowd at the DNC was doing very similar tactics that you have to do if you're going against a guerrilla warfare style terrorist group that you see in ISIS or Hamas. Benjamin Netanyahu would call them ISIS Hamas.

He would try to make that connection on the world stage in his English speeches to be able to try to make the world understand what they're dealing with. And it wasn't the same as the United States because ISIS was far away. They were off in the Middle East. This is a terrorist group that has a safe haven right next to Israel on the border that's able to creep across the border and slaughter thousands of people. And what you see is that the left, they pick and choose which terrorist groups are okay and which Obama is allowed to go after. And I think that's the difference here is that they hate Israel. That's the bottom line. It's anti-Semitism within the party that if it were any other country doing this against a terrorist group, they would be fine with it and say, I'm just glad that you're not soldiers over there. It's just drones that are taking out these terrorist groups.

Exactly. I'll go back to the phones. 1-800-684-3110. Let's go to Ann in Pennsylvania on Line 1. Hey, Ann.

Hey, guys. Thank you for your support for Israel. I have a question, but I think I also have the answer to it as to why this is going on and I wanted to know your feedback on that, but really quickly, Biden is illegitimate. Now, if Trump were rightfully in office, none of this would be going on.

And here's the point. The conservative media, the church, Congress has done nothing to resolve what took place in 2020. It's going to be a repeat in 2024 because certain issues are not being addressed. Guys, what can we do, aside from the fact that we know that this presidency is what's going to make the difference, but what else can we do? What can Congress do? What can conservative media do to speak out, to stop this?

Now, people were kidnapped and babies were burned alive in ovens. This is sick, what's going on. And ACLJ is one of the only organizations who are defending Israel. So I thank you, guys. I'm just a little bit frustrated.

Yeah, I know. It's frustrating. We were talking about coming up on October 7th and months ago hoping that we would at least be able to acknowledge that the hostages had been released and that this conflict would be over for now and that maybe the major Hamas leaders would have been taken out.

Some have been, others have been promoted. I think the real issue that we've seen here is the world's ability to quickly forgive the enemies of the Jewish State of Israel and actually take their position. Not only just feel bad for them, but to actually take their position and try to justify those horrendous actions that you described, and it started just a couple of weeks after October 7th, which we all knew it would start the moment Israel began a real response. It wouldn't start that Israel would get some support even at the United Nations, even from countries that weren't as friendly, but ultimately that when Israel hit back and started to do anything possible to get those hostages released, that the world's condemnation would come. It would come from countries like South Africa trying to take Israel and its leaders at the ICJ, and we've seen that.

We've seen it at the International Criminal Court where the ACLJ is involved. So you ask, what can we do? We have to change the elected leaders in our own country. Those leaders didn't have to put pressure on the world. We saw it happen.

Could you imagine if Donald Trump was President? This happening under the Abraham Accords where the Palestinians, especially the Gaza Strip and Hamas, found no support from the countries in the Gulf States who were joining the Abraham Accords to have a better economic relationship and even tourist relationship with the State of Israel. It was a two-way relationship, and that more countries were going to join. So they would have had less support, less sympathy from those countries, but instead the Biden administration comes in, and because it was a Trump administration policy, it had to be let go or dismantled, and ultimately it remains that way. President Trump could come in and attempt to restore it, and I think then you would see that is the quickest way to get the rest of the hostages home alive is to get more of the Muslim world, not necessarily in full-on support of Israel, but in full-on support of the United States and an economic relationship with the Jewish State of Israel, because then it's in their interest to get this conflict resolved and to get these hostages home alive.

So that Israel could ultimately allow those in Gaza to try and restart something that looks different than a terrorist-run state. I want to thank all of you so much for your support as we were leading up into Labor Day the past couple of months during our Life and Liberty drive. I know we were talking about it a lot on the air. We asked for your financial support. You delivered, and because of you there are so many issues I could go through right now. We were doing them all last week, but because of you we were able to get involved in every one of those issues. Thank you for your support. As always, go to ACLJ.org.