BREAKING: WHITE HOUSE ON LOCKDOWN

We got breaking news: the White House currently on lockdown, keeping you informed and engaged.

Now more than ever, this is Sekulow. We want to hear from you. Share and post your comments. For call, one eight hundred six eight four three one one zero. And now your host, Logan Sekulow.

Welcome to Sekulow. This is Logan Sekulow. Will Haynes in studio. Rick Reynolds will be joining us a little bit later. Leading with the breaking news, having out of Washington D.C., and we're just now starting to get information on this.

And that is the White House currently on lockdown, as well as certain areas have been evacuated. This is due to a couple different things, including a car that jumped a curb and plowed into an informational sign near the White House on Monday, prompting police to order the driver to driver to the Ground as the Secret Service moved journalists indoors, but there's also reports of another incident that is happening. Same time, they are saying these are separate incidents, but included, I believe, someone jumping a barricade. Again, this is happening all in real time. I want to make sure that we are keeping you updated when things like this break, and it happened to be happening right before we went on air.

We decided, hey, we need to shift our headline here because it is a breaking news item. We will continue to follow it as more progresses. Again, the White House on lockdown right now after a car crashed into a barrier. Again, President Trump leaving in Washington D.C. This is happening with President Trump in town, as well as again a secondary incident that where again Will just told me this as I was sitting down.

That's right.

So what we're hearing from the Secret Service as well as the National Guard are that they responded to the north side of Lafayette Park at 16th Street and Eighth Street Northwest, where a vehicle crashed onto the sidewalk. This is a Statement from the Secret Service: The driver was combative with law enforcement, but was quickly placed under arrest. You can see in the video that we're showing on screen as the the individuals, law enforcement, there rush around to that driver's side. A lot of obviously law enforcement on scene as that is a very highly sensitive area. But at the same time, a second individual jumped a barricade near the northwest corner of Lafayette Park, and that individual was also quickly.

Placed under arrest. Obviously, this is all happening in real time. We will see if there's more information. If one was a distraction for the other, or what is going to go on here. But this comes at obviously a very interesting time, as we are just now coming off the the big elections of last week, where the Democrats took a major lead, and we heard quite a bit from the President this weekend in that 60 Minutes interview, as well as him elevating Stephen Miller to chief of staff.

While Susie Wiles is departing the White House, a lot of moving parts will get into it. But we had to bring this breaking news to you immediately. They did say that that items were taken from that vehicle. They had a explosive ordnance disposal team that did a sweep of the vehicle. It doesn't appear that there were any explosives that are being reported at this moment, but still.

Journalist moved indoors. White House placed on lockdown. All at a very tense time in Washington D.C. Very tense time. A week under a week from the midterms, and then obviously as things started to ramp up and threats, as we know, are not taken lightly in this administration.

Nor should they be. We have seen that across the country. As obviously there have been major attempts on the lives of members of the cabinet, including President Trump himself.

Now we will keep you updated as things progress. I'm sure there'll be more that breaks over the next hour. We are going to continue and discuss other topics as well, including that really groundbreaking 60 Minutes interview President Trump had just last night that aired. I watched the full extended cut, which was available on CBS's YouTube, which was a nearly an hour. Not one of the better interviews I've seen of President Trump.

Whether you agree with what he said or disagreed, he kept the tone right. Congrats to that journalist today! Fantastic job of asking hard questions while still remaining respectful. I thought it was a really fascinating look into the mind President Trump here in 2026, the post midterm defeat, if you will, and we kind of got a little bit of a preview of what's to come, including replacements that could be coming to the cabinet and some of the top topics, including immigration, Israel, all these ones, the war in Iran. Where he thought there could have been mistakes, and one of the big ones, obviously that he referred to directly, was maybe being a little too tough on immigration.

That maybe that did, you know, turn off some voters. We're going to discuss that and more coming up. If you did see it, I'd love your thoughts. One eight hundred six eight four three one one zero. One eight hundred six eight four thirty one ten.

If you are just tuning in, yes, the White House currently on lockdown as a car rammed through the secure areas of the White House. There's not a whole lot of information yet, but we are keeping you engaged in that as well. The ACLJ has launched our Stand Strong campaign. I'm going to get into that. We get back a little bit more.

But you can have your donation made today. Welcome back to Sekulow. I know a lot of you are tuning in right now, and you're seeing that breaking news item: the White House on lockdown. We're going to cover that right now, and then we'll move into some of some other topics of the day because we don't have a ton of information. What we know is that a car essentially rammed through a secure area by the White House, jumped a curb, plowed into an informational sign.

Person was apprehended and arrested. The same time, we're getting reports that you can see the footage right now. Same time, we are getting reports that another person tried to attempt to jump a barricade. They don't believe that these were linked, but it does feel a little suspiciously timed. And currently, the White House is on lockdown.

Or also, at the same time, journalists were moved inside. People that were not yet were evacuated.

So, taking this very seriously.

So, I want to make sure we cover that right off the top. One of the other things happening, of course, was sort of the the groundbreaking interview that happened last night. On sixty minutes, and this journalist's name, Ross Douthit. Ross Douthit. I have to say, I want to commend him.

I think he did an excellent job asking real questions, not getting frazzled. The press, not also kind of triggering the President to get up and leave or do anything, was not disrespectful, but asked real hard questions about the status of kind of the the movement in twenty twenty six after that pretty resounding defeat last Tuesday, and President Trump, maybe one of the more forthcoming. Interviews that he has done, you may disagree with what he has to say, but at least he seemed like he was being honest with what was going on. Of course, there was some political talk saying, you know, this was the best two years of any other President, all the stuff you're used to hearing. But then, when pushed back on it, specifically involved in immigration, I think President Trump is aware that a lot of people had very mixed feelings on the level.

That some of the ice raids kind of took how harsh it became, and that you saw it being a little bit turned off. You know, the American people get a little turned off by some of the extreme nature of it.

Now, at the same time. You have President Trump then putting in Stephen Miller instead of Susie Wiles, which you would think would certainly indicate the opposite.

So I'm not so sure about that. But I think we should play some clips here. Will yeah, let's go to this. This is bite ten, and it's about a minute long because, as you pointed out, the the tenor of this interview and the pacing of it was a very good conversation. There was back and forth, but it wasn't just sound bite, sound bite, sound bite as you'd maybe used to seeing on a A CBS, you know, sixty Minutes interview, and I want people to remember Ross Doubt that was one of the concerns that everyone's had about when Scott Pelley left and was forced out of the job, and obviously when when things changed with the editorial nature of CBS News and and sixty Minutes that it was just going to just destroy it.

I've heard more people talking about this interview. Then people have talked about 60 Minutes in a very long time, so yeah, maybe Bowery Weiss and those that are at CBS News are doing a good job of making it relevant again, instead of it just being a waste of time. I searched 60 Minutes on YouTube last night to find this interview. Says a lot. But let's play bite ten because I think this was the most surprising, shocking moment for anyone watching this about when when asked about.

How he could work with a Democratic majority. What President Trump offered up as the potential path by ten. You came out after the midterms. You congratulated the Democrats. You said that you were open to working with them.

True. What is one thing you would like to work with a Democratic majority? I'd love to do something on immigration. What? Because well, so.

Do you think immigration hurt you in the midterms? Do you think the crackdown? I think it both helped and hurt. I think I got an A plus for closing up the border, because we had 25 million people come in through Biden over a four year period and. Many of those people were, as you know, they were from prisons, they were drug dealers, they were from mental institutions, they were from all over the world, not just South America.

And some, I think, I get some of them, as you once said, are good people. No, I said that yes, some are good and some are really bad. Just clarifying, you had eleven thousand eight hundred and eighty-eight murderers, most of whom, more than half of whom, committed more than one murder. They were allowed into our country. We've gotten most of them out.

And then he goes on, and we can play some more later. But even right there, that he is still repeating that you know there were bad people in this country, and we've gotten most of them out. He's saying that that is a victory. You also think about how much. The border has been completely shut off as a pathway for illegal migrants coming into this country, compared to especially what was happening under the Biden years.

When you look at like the graphs of it, it's shocking, and also how easy it was for an administration that just wanted to turn off the flow of migrants into the country. They could do it almost immediately. But then he is bringing up the fact that he thinks that it hurt him in many ways, and that that's where he thinks he can maybe work with Democrats.

Now, I want to know from people watching: this is obviously a different tone than you are hearing. He also signaled in some ways that maybe this isn't the path they're going to go by elevating Stephen Miller. When you heard this, and this is the bite that's getting played often. Is this something that concerned you? Is this something that you're like?

This isn't what I voted for, but at the same time, President Trump is the one who is the President and has to figure out how to not completely be a lame duck. We heard from a lot of people last week when we brought up that we didn't like the decision of saying the no funding for Israel at the end of this year. We had a lot of people in our in our chat say, "You just got to trust the President, though. If this is the person." That the people voted for, I flip that now to the audience that may be concerned or don't like this answer on immigration. Is this something that that frustrates you, or do you still trust the President?

To work with Democrats in a way that is still his agenda, but may not look like exactly what you thought it was going to look like. Yeah, it's interesting to see some of those comments coming in because there are a lot of people who want to push back on that, saying, you know what, this isn't what we voted for. This is we wanted deportations. One of, and I don't think President Trump necessarily is pushing back on saying that there should be deportations. Saying maybe it just, you know, maybe the selection committee of who was first to go that we were a bit too much on the very.

Beginning of this, and I think, look, the American people. As much as you want to paint, especially Republicans or people that voted for President Trump, it's very easy to paint with a very broad brush. I think there is a large percentage of them that said, you know what. There is a difference between someone coming in who is doing incredible amount of harm to their community, who is trafficking in drugs, or in this, or people that have been here twenty plus years, ten plus years, have good paying jobs, who've been trying their best. Even if their crime was they got here illegally, maybe they did escape what they were in the situation they were in, and they did something wrong, and there should be consequences to that.

But maybe those consequences should be measured. I do think there is people with empathy. There are people with sympathy. Who who feel a little bit different for you know the people who have come to America to seek a better life versus come to people who come to America to cause destruction.

Well, and I think we should play this bite. This is the following bite right after bite ten. It's eleven on our list, but this is that continuation of this conversation where President Trump is talking about the difference between the high marks he got for the many individuals that were. Committing more criminal acts once they got here, and sometimes getting lenient attention from the government from from the judicial system, even though they were repeat offenders. This is bite eleven, and then after this, I want you to call if you disagree with this, if you don't like that the President said this, or if you think this is part of the strategy.

One eight hundred six eight four three one one zero. We want to hear from you on this today. Let's go ahead and roll bite eleven. For getting people out, I get very high marks for getting the bad ones out, but I get hurt because we also took people that had good jobs that that created one violation or breaking of the law. That was that they came into the country illegally.

Now there is a large part of the country that think that they should be put out. And there's a large part of the country that think that they should be allowed to stay if they're good people working in a landscaping company or working in a hotel, or doing something right, and in some cases paying taxes. And there's a large group of people think that they should be allowed to stay.

So, so you think your deportation policy went too far? It was too tough. I think it might be too tough. Yeah, and a lot of people would say. That it's great, but a lot of people think it's too tough.

Well, and even then, it keeps going. And he talks about that specific angle is what he thinks he could work with Democrats on.

Now, there's people saying, "Is Trump becoming an amnesty President?" He's he would obviously push back at that. But once again, I think that that's a real conversation that he's willing to have at this point. The border states are fairly controlled by Democrats right now. When you look at right, I saw a meme that was like a joke. It's like, "Look, they built the wall, and it was." You know, so the the blue wall that that literally is the entire border now, including Texas to Mexico.

So, of course, t here is going to have to be real discussion here. And if you are proud of the fact that there hasn't been many, if any, border crossings recently, and that really did dry up and became this massive success, we're going to have to start looking at how you work.

So it doesn't unravel over the next two years. What do you think about that? Phone lines are open for you at one eight hundred six eight four thirty one ten. Did want to touch again? As I do see the numbers keep going up, so I know people are seeing that headline.

Yes, as of right now, I don't know if we have any update on this. The White House was placed on lockdown. I'm not sure if it currently still is.

So it appears they have shrunk the perimeter because it was a full block around basically that entire area that was shut off. They have shrunk that perimeter. We can talk a little bit about this when we come back. But once again, they said that that individual in the vehicle was combative with law enforcement, which goes to show. Also, this wasn't someone that was texting on their phone and ended up hitting a sign.

Or an older person. It seemed like it was an intentional act, and then they fought back against law enforcement as they were being placed into custody. We'll keep you updated on that. But a very alarming situation at the White House this morning. Right before we went live, yeah.

Sadly, Secret Service jumped into action. Sadly, as expected. You know, this has been a hotbed for the unwell, if you will, people who have really, really been tormented by what's been going on in the news media and with this administration. And and these are again more results of that. I want to talk to you more when we get back, also about the work of the ACLU.

We got to make sure we don't forget about that. We're going to keep you updated on the news of the day. We'll be right back. Welcome back to Sekulow. Phone lines are lighting up.

A lot of thoughts on President Trump's 60 minutes interview. That again was a fascinating. It's an hour long watch. If you watch the extended cut on YouTube, I should encourage you to go watch it. I don't get anything out of that other than the fact that I think you're gonna find yourself a little bit more in the brain of President Trump to see where his his mind currently is as he heads for two more years of his presidency in the fight against becoming.

What they call a lame duck President, due to the fact that we've lost the Senate and the House, and what are you going to do? And again. That fight is going to grow stronger and stronger, and he's starting to already moderate. I know some of you are happy about that. I know some of you upset about that.

Maybe that you were a more traditional conservative who voted for President Trump, didn't necessarily love all of the MAGA language, but maybe you thought, "Well, I'm definitely voting for a Republican over a Democrat, even if I don't like a lot of the things that President Trump has to say, and maybe some of the extreme rhetoric." And on the other side, if you voted specifically for that rhetoric and for that guy who is going to deport everyone and do all these things, maybe you look at. The sixty Minutes interview, and you are upset about it. And we have calls coming in on both sides of that conversation. I think we should take one. Let's start with Heidi, who's certainly not thrilled.

Heidi, go ahead. Hi, I disagree with Trump, and which we call it. He, what's the word? No, I'm sorry. He complains about the optics.

He claims that illegal, the illegal roundup cost them the election. I mean, that's the Implied thought there, but he doesn't mention anything about. I mean, what's he been doing the last two years on e-verify and debunking them and cutting off direct deposits and seizing their assets and property? That's a low optic measure that he could have taken. But what he doesn't what he doesn't acknowledge is that.

DHS has found that there has been over two hundred thousand non-citizens that voted last week, and that by legalizing, if he legalizes these hundred million illegals here, that's Greg Bonvino's figure. The GOP will never win another election. It is completely unfair. The rules are for all and not for some. I appreciate your call, and look, I think you can look at sort of the last year of the DHS situation.

That's something we can analyze a bit more. Obviously, you had Christine Blum who ends up getting replaced, and her replacement comes in and sort of lightens it all. becomes a bit more of a tolerable voice for the American people. And then ramped it up a little bit more. It got a little bit more heated, but maybe you saw less of the.

I mean, there were still accidents that happened, but it felt like there was this running cycle.

Well, you're right. Maybe those kind of issues would have been a little less on the forefront because it's like of someone, like you said, lost their their their way, willing their ways to do banking, and those kind of things are different than guns on the streets. You know, arresting people out of their homes, and then some people obviously tragically lost their lives. That maybe that would have been a little bit more low impact. That would have pushed this story a bit more into, I don't know, into a tolerable way.

Well, and I do want to push back on one thing that Heidi said. She said that DHS found that two hundred thousand non citizens voted. That is not a verified number. That comes from actually where they were saying that they are concerned about about two hundred fifty thousand on voter rolls that they were trying to investigate, and the states were pushing back on now. Before people say, "Oh, you're you're trying to cover or take the left's talking point," the ACLJ has been on the forefront of this issue.

We've talked about what we've been doing in Maryland, and Vermont, and California, and across the country, trying to ensure that the voter rolls are protected and kept certain. But once again, I'm seeing this, and I think it's important to push back at because if you don't learn from these things, you'll never be able to to recover from it. When people start to push back at this midterm and say, It was probably non citizen voters that pushed it over. No, it was the the Republicans and conservatives stayed home. When you look at go from state to state, even Tennessee, where the where Marsha Blackburn was able to become the next governor of Tennessee, and you have Bill Haggerty was able to keep his seat in the United States Senate, the margins were a lot slimmer than they normally would have been because a million people didn't vote.

In this election, that voted in the last election, the same thing in Texas: over a million and a half fewer voters, and it wasn't those that were voting blue.

So you can point to a two hundred fifty thousand number across the country, and even at that point, if that were true, that didn't change the fact that a million and a half people stayed home in Texas, and a million people stayed home in Tennessee, and we've gone through every state last week.

So yes, it's a concern and something we fight for. But if the blame is on that for this election, no. I think one thing we're going to find out in in the coming years, if conservatives don't figure out a better get out the vote messaging, is that the biggest loss to conservative voting hasn't been policy wise. It's the fact that Charlie Kirk and Turning Point USA were a huge get out the vote operation that is not the same as it was after his assassination, and so that I think is becoming evident as well when you look at these states where college campuses and young. Voters were energized by that organization.

It doesn't have the same effect as it did. Yeah, and then let's counterbalance that. And then look, we're gonna have a bunch of lines open for the next half hour. One eight hundred six eight four thirty one ten. Let's go to Donna in Ohio.

Donna, go ahead. Hello. Hey, go ahead. Hi. This that.

My name's Donna, and I want to talk about immigration because I. We had some bad people come in. The gates were open. Nobody checked them. They came in.

He, Trump, had to get them out because they were killing people. But now, we've got some older people who have been in the country for a long time. How they slipped in, no one knows. But they're not doing any harm. They're holding down a job.

They're just not a citizen. They should be considered on merit, and. Look, Donna, I understand what you're saying. I understand what you're saying. I don't necessarily disagree with you.

You know, I'll know in the comments. People will will say that that's something that I've been soft on. I think a lot of us have felt for our neighbors who are who are not necessarily here legally. And look, I I don't discount that crime. I don't discount that that is not something that should have been handled.

But you're right, especially or in situations where people have brought their children. Their children have now grown up here and have lived here twenty years, and they're you know again maybe they're in your local schools, maybe they are in college, maybe they are working steady jobs. And look, it's tough. It's it's a lot easier probably to say anyone who's here illegally out the door. And to do that with force, but to have a bit more heart in it takes a little bit more effort, and we have to decide kind of where we go.

And I think President Trump is weighing those issues as well. With that, though, look, I understand that it's been a tough week, but we are fighting back strong still here at the ACLJ, and we're doing things. A lot of them are our individual clients here. And we've had issues. Look, when it comes to immigration, there have been a lot of people who should not have been wound up in this whole thing.

We know this. We know there have been mistakes that have been made. We've helped some of those people personally who were here legally, completely legally, or did have some sort of true—they're not amnesty—true. You know, they were in wartime. They were escaping.

They needed help. And America welcomed them, and then they were being forced back to their country. The ACLU has helped where we could on some of these, where it felt like it was a very legitimate reason, and somehow they got swept up in what became those ICE situations. That doesn't mean the ACLU work in terms of defending your rights and defending your rights as an American citizen changes. And there are so much happening right now, including in your own public schools.

We've been talking about this, whether it's parental rights, some of the content they've been forced to see. And today, we're even actually in court, looking at the notes here. We're in court today, defending parental rights against harmful content in public schools. Those are things that are happening on the individual, localized level. That the ACLJ team needs to be there for you.

And we have a second half hour coming up. Not everyone here gets your full our full hour. If you're watching, you're going to find us. We don't go anywhere. If you're just listening, if you're on the terrestrial radio.

Maybe find us on aclj dot org, on Rumble, on YouTube, on Facebook. We're broadcasting live. Of course, you can find us archived where you get your podcasts. Stand strong with us today. Have your donations doubled at aclj dot org.

We'll be right back in less than a minute. Keeping you informed and engaged now more than ever. This is Sekulow. And now your host, Logan Sekulow. Welcome to the second half hour of Sekulow.

A lot of your guests joining us right now. We do have a bit of an update on that situation outside of the White House. As the White House this morning was put on lockdown right before we went on air live, it was put on lockdown. We had journalists that were moved inside. We had different sections of the White House grounds evacuated.

This was due to a couple different incidents. One was a car that jumped a curb, plowed into a sign near the White House. A person. Was combative when they got out. Thankfully, apprehended.

Doesn't look like anyone was injured. And another time, there were reports, and the person was arrested as well.

Someone tried to jump a barricade again in the White House grounds. Put everyone on red alert. Essentially, shut it all down. At this point, we know that it has become a little lighter. That they have started to open up certain areas.

So again, looks like that threat has been neutralized, if you will, and it was not a current issue in Washington D.C. While still, we're on very high alert, and Washington D.C. is under very high alert in general. Again, just a week out of the midterms, and we know all the chaos that has come out of that. At the same time, we are talking about President Trump and his appearance last.

Night on sixty minutes, a really fascinating interview. Again, I encourage you all to go watch it. We've been discussing the implications of really his conversation on the immigration situation, and even saying that he thinks it went a little too hard.

Some people like that, some people are not going to like that, but it is the truth. And then the next portion of this, we're going to have Rick Grinnell joining us a little bit to discuss sort of the global impact of what's going on. Will that's right? As we know, also Secretary of State Marco Rubio is at a G seven Foreign Ministers Conference today.

Some of that has been really interesting because of because of the midterm election. He talked some about Iran when he was on the tarmac, getting off the plane there, saying that some of the diplomatic moves there have not not been something that the United States would agree to.

Some of the things that Iran was saying now in this next phase of negotiations that they were putting in as things that would have to be a part of a deal. But all of this starts to come as you also see the the fighting where the vice President put out that the entire reason for the losses was the war in Iran. Then you also hear conversely people saying, "Yeah, people also didn't like what the vice President did leading the ceasefire and the failed diplomatic solution there." Now that the President is a little bit not held to an election cycle. Is he going to be more forceful with Iran? Is he going to back off on Iran?

When you have the Secretary of State and the Vice President kind of in two different mindsets here, you also have the fact that it looks like the House is going to move forward with a vote to impeach the Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, this week. That comes from the charge being led by Thomas Massie, who will no longer be in Congress at the start of the year. But he thinks he has got enough Republicans or outgoing Republicans that he can get an impeachment vote across the finish line. That is also carrying water for the Democrats at some point because it takes one thing off their checklist they have to do next year when they are in the majority. If they were wanting to go after specific members of the cabinet with impeachment processes, so it's an interesting thing that that Thomas Massie is going to make this his.

Final stand, trying to impeach the Secretary of War, but we also don't know where we're going to go as far as how will Iran be dealt with now that the burden of the midterm election is kind of gone for the President. Yeah, I know a lot of you have thoughts on that as well. President Trump weighed into that, including weighing in that look he went through the list of things, not unlike JD Vance did, and went through the list, and one of them was the sort of unpopular the unpopularity of Israel. And then a lot of people have turned their back on Israel. He blames that to be part of the reason.

Look, not he doesn't back off saying we needed to do what we had to do in Iran, but says you know what, if we're being honest, that's where it's at. It's a shame that this is where we're at right now. Look, phone lines are open for you. We get back. Stay on hold if you're on hold right now.

Dave, Richard, Cliff, Vicky, I'm going to get to you. Um, coming up. We got Rick Grinnell joining us. Give us a little more analysis in the next segment, and then at the end of the show, again the last fifteen minutes or so of the show, I take as many calls as I can.

So go ahead and get in line. One eight hundred six eight four thirty one ten. Again, one eight hundred six eight four three one one zero. I haven't talked a lot about the ACLJ work, but know that we believe in this mission. We take it very seriously.

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Be right back. Welcome back to Secular. We are going to take your calls and comments in the next segment. I got two lines open again. If you're on hold right now, whether you're in Texas, California, North Carolina, Illinois, stay on hold.

We had a couple lines open though. One eight hundred six eight four thirty one ten. Talking about a few different things. Of course, a lot of you tuned in, seeing that the White House put on lockdown. We've covered that pretty aggressively early on.

Not a lot of information, but things like things like things are settling down there. Another thing was President Trump's appearance on sixty. Minutes and then we just have talked about which we're going to bring in Rick Grinnell now. Talk about Marco Rubio currently will at this conference, this G7 conference. Want to give a little bit of a background people know and then kick it to Rick.

That's right.

So the Secretary of State is in Paris for this Foreign Ministers G7 summit.

So it's we think about the G7. You see the President and the foreign leaders. This is the those that are in charge of the foreign policy or administering the foreign policy of the countries. And those administrations that are meeting in Paris right now. Work done.

That's right.

And I think what's interesting about this is the timing post midterm election, a midterm election that had a lot to do with foreign policy. And I kind of wanted to get your thought, Rick, on where the the administration goes from here because you saw kind of the pushback from JD Vance saying it was Iran War's fault. You see Marco Rubio saying you know today that that Iran has outrageous and ridiculous. Demands for a diplomatic solution.

Now that there is no, you know, burden of a midterm election, which I don't think the President was burdened by. He even said, "I would do it all again the same way I did it if I had to." Where do you think the factions within the administration end up as we move forward in in two years of a presidency where foreign policy is the thing that the executive branch has the most Influence over such interesting questions. First, let me start by saying that I'm sorry that I'm in a sweatshirt. I have a little dog dad duties that I'm here with. Very sick puppy, but she's doing better.

What what I would say is is these are the arguments, these are the conversations that we really need to have right now. With such a historic loss, we can't avoid these conversations. I would argue that I think the Democrats kept losing because they didn't really have these heart to heart conversations between the far left, the far right.

Socialists, people who support Israel, people who don't support Israel. I think parties are better, leaders are better when they can hear from everyone, and that is what President Trump does best. He is an open book, and and the media have complete access. We know what he's thinking, we know what he's saying on a regular basis, and so these conversations about why did we lose, was it Iran, was it foreign policy? I do believe that it had something to do with it.

Because simply put, you know the the mantra that we had going into twenty twenty four is we were going to be the party that brought in peace, and I think people were frustrated, but. There's no question that what President Trump is doing is ultimately to bring peace. He is the one who is focused on it, and sometimes you have to do things in the short term to achieve that peace. There's no question in my mind. President Trump is the President of peace.

He's somebody who wants that and prioritizes that. But these are these are conversations that I think all of the people who want to run for President, all of the RNC types, all of Congress needs to be having, so that we're very clear. Messaging is really important, and I I think that we need to be clear as to who we are and where we're going forward. And maybe there'll be slight differences from the different politicians who want to become President, and they are going to have to articulate those and see where the Base supports well, and I think that's also in light of that 60 Minutes interview last night as well that we've been talking quite a bit about is that that people should know this from watching maybe The Apprentice or things like that, where President Trump will test different ideas against different people in different venues and formats. We saw him talk to Ross Althut and say things like, "Maybe I went too hard on immigration on a portion of." The deportations.

Maybe I went too hard on that. Maybe I can work with Democrats on that. At the same time, he's elevating Stephen Miller to the position of chief of staff, which is not a signal to anyone that he's going to do less on immigration. But once again, that brings up the same thing that you're talking about: that what he is good at is listening to different voices and moving forward. What what political parties as a whole have not traditionally been good at.

Is listening to the different voices and coming out stronger, but maybe there is a lesson that can be learned here. I would even argue that we've had politicians that have not just list they've been bad at listening, but they've been bad at reading the reality. Look, the the the President of the United States, Donald Trump, is a realist and he's full of common sense, and he does have very conservative ideas. But we're faced with a two years now of a total Democrat Congress. I think the reality is is incrementalism.

Should rule the day. We have to do the things that that are doable. We can't go in and just say we're gonna. You know, the President should veto everything, and then we're in lockdown, and we don't have a budget. I'm just not of that camp.

I want to do the best that we can do with the reality on the ground. We should not be denying reality. That is how politicians become so ingrained in their way. That they ignore what's going on around them and they become robotic. We have a Democrat House, a Democrat Senate, and a Republican President.

Thank God, President Trump is going to give us the best deal he can, but he's going to have to do some deal making. That's just the reality. We got to move forward. And if you don't, then you end up. Like what?

Like the Biden administration, really, who decided you know we're not going to talk to people, we will not sit across the aisle, we will not go negotiate with foreign leaders that we even have a disagreement with, and you end up in a situation where in four years you have a massive switch again. I mean, we can't remember; we're only two years out of President Trump's. We've seen this pendulum shift so many times, but we know very easily. I mean, President Biden was not at the time. You know, he could have gotten a lot done, but a lot of it he would not.

Sit across the table. He had a lot of people in his ears saying, "No, we're going to be hardliners here, and we're so against what was you know President Trump before that we will not work with anyone." And I think there's going to be some pushback. Sure, I'm seeing it in the chat where people watch that 60 Minutes, which by the way I think was fantastic 60 Minutes interview, and say, "Oh, this isn't what I voted for here." But there is that reality, as you said, or you end up not only getting nothing done, you end up hurting people in the long run. Yeah, look, Logan. I think it's such a great point because Joe Biden decided that he wasn't going to speak to Vladimir Putin.

Right, wasn't going to speak to certain people, and somehow they think that that's a good thing. That that punishes them, and and that's denying reality. I think that we have to talk to everybody who is the leader of a group, of the leader of another country, the leader of Congress, and you have to get the best deal that you can. We know President Trump is a great negotiator. He's a hard negotiator.

He's not just going to to do anything to get a deal. He is going to get us the best deal that he can. But the reality is, we have Democrats that control the House and the Senate. There's no denying that. Yeah, and I think the fact that we are dealing with a new future it does concern people.

Rick, I think people look at this and there is that bit of panic. But I think a lot of these people are, and we talked about this a little bit last week. A lot of the people, including the people who watch this show, and there's thousands of you watching right now.

Now maybe they're kind of new to politics in this. Trump brought them in, and to see them have to go through the first presidency, and then obviously the Biden administration, and then President Trump again a breath of fresh air. They were excited about it, and then now you have this setback again. It's somewhat well. And I was even going to say to those that, and we kind of said this last week as well, where people say, "Oh, it's over.

It's all gloom and doom." Remember, after 2016, Democrats I. Was told we're never going to win another election ever because of how poorly their brand was. But at the same time, you're already starting to see that people aren't necessarily taking the right lessons from this. On the left, on the winning side, there is a Gosenborn Philadelphian who has now announced his challenge to John Fetterman in Pennsylvania, so a swing state.

Someone that is now, after the the test run of Abdul Al Sayed, now you are having someone who is a Gazan that is trying to run on that style campaign. When you have horrific things that even happened over the weekend in Philadelphia, and you had even the the governor coming out and speaking out against hate. Obviously, he has experienced that as governor. If if the Democrats are taking the the wrong winning lessons from this, I don't think that that bodes well for them as well. Look, one of the big lessons that we've learned from President Trump is that Washington and Washington politicians do not get to control us.

Gone is the day that we just are observers and watch the process. We didn't win in the midterm elections. To me, that means we got to work harder. We got to have a better message. We got to get to work.

I don't sit back and say it's someone else's fault. Why didn't they do that? I don't believe that that. That's the role of Americans in today's America. I think we all have a role.

You have to work harder. You have to do better. You have to get involved. You can't just walk away and say. Gosh, those Republicans didn't do well.

I wish they would do better. It's on all of us to get involved, and I think that's the lesson President Trump taught us. Thank you so much for joining us, Rick. Today, always great to hear your insight. We'll be praying for you and for your your pup.

So that's a sadie, but also it's okay. We're hoodie. We wear hoodie. I think my family has a lot of those hoodies, and you know what? They're here.

They're very nice.

So with that. Phone lines are open for you again, while they're jammed, but we'll open up one eight hundred six eight four three one ten one eight hundred six eight four three one one zero. I'll be right back. Sekulow taking your calls and comments. Just a moment.

Welcome back to Sekulow. Phone lines are completely jammed. Sent me on a hold for close to half an hour, and I appreciate that. Including some ACLJ champions, I always like to jump them up to the front. Unfortunately, that still was 25 minutes.

I'm sorry about that, Cliff. Go ahead. Though, thank you for all your support. Yeah. Hey.

Real quick, I want to go two points. Please give me a sec. Do our best. All right. The first point is that with all these illegals that came in under the Biden and and Obama administration, that that's that's more of the taxpayers are paying for freeloaders, and and so the taxpayers paying twice, paying for someone else to be here that's not supposed to be here.

Plus, they're paying more at the grocery store. Because of all the extra people that are here, and number two, there's a worldwide problem with the illegal immigration, and it's if you if you open your eyes, you can see it, and they're coming here because we are the best nation in in world history that looks out for everyone, so. Yeah, Cliff. I take both of your points as well. And one, I think history will look back on the four years of the Biden administration, and it was just loss after loss after loss of of policy.

Right when it comes to everything that went on during that entire administration, it was terrible. And the controlling of the border was something that almost lost its sting because of how bad it was. Over those years of how uncontrolled it was, and we clearly could see it was by design. It was on purpose that that was not a priority because as soon as the Trump administration gets in. The numbers are shocking.

How easy it was to control the border, but I think at the same time, something you pointed out—you did say—why is America the best nation in the world? Is that we have been a place that people could come and they could thrive and they could be able to succeed from all over the world, and I think that is the difference here. Is that There, that is still a pathway, and I think that that's somewhat what President Trump is pointing to: is that over the history of America, immigrant communities have been able to come here and thrive as Americans. And what we saw during the Biden administration was the the recklessness of policy of bringing people in and then just having the government take care of them. And that isn't the end game of any American.

If you're a conservative, it's not just government taking care of citizens. It is of government providing a strong foundation for people to thrive, and so when people are upset by the President Trump comment, I think it's more what Cliff was saying: is that yeah, there's a reason people want to come here, but let's make sure we are doing it the right way, which is something this is not anything different than we here at the ACLJ have said for 35 years: in that, yeah, people can come to the United States doing it the proper way, doing it the right way, and also to support and live in this constitutional republic. Public in a way that is reflective of that. I think the idea that we've always kind of said, which is the you go pre-Trump, you know, pre-sort of this ICE situation over the last year, saying the idea of deporting everyone had become not only overwhelming but likely impossible. And I think what we're learning right now is that when we were saying that, maybe we were right in in the sense of it is a uphill battle like we've never imagined because of the amount of people.

That doesn't mean it's good that there are everyone you know. Is here, but that also means we probably need to be more selective. Let's continue on though. There's a lot of people calling in. Let's go over to Dave in Texas again.

I want to hit some of these border states since it's important. Dave, go ahead. Hey, how you doing? Good. Yeah, I wanted to correct a statement that was said earlier on the show about the Republicans' loss because lack of turnout.

We didn't. You look at Texas and. In 2018, Abbott ran against Valdez. We had 4.6 million Republicans, and Valdez had 3.5 Democrats. 2022, Abbott had 4.4 million, and Beto had 3.5 million.

Then, in 2026, we had 4.5 million for Abbott and Gina. Got five point two million. That's a jump from the norm of one point seven million.

So, Dave, I'm going to jump in here because we only have about four minutes left. We have a couple other callers. I understand your point. I've looked at the numbers extensively, and and here's where one. I don't think you can look at Texas, and I think if you do, if you look at Texas, say this was voter fraud, then you're going to lose every election in the future because you're not taking the lesson here.

And the big thing here is you can say, "Wow, look, Democrats overperformed." We know they did. They were energized. They overperformed across the country, but when you also look at the fact that Ted Cruz got 5.9 million votes in 2024, when conservatives and Republicans were energized, and Ken Paxton only got 4.2 million, that is where the loss happened. It is because people did not turn out for Ken Paxton, and who was also a victim of that. Governor Abbott and and the Attorney General, and you go across the board, and then if you also start to say, "Look, we need things like the Save Act in this country," Texas has very strong voter protection because the states do administer our elections.

We're not talking about California here. We're talking about the leadership of Governor Abbott and his Secretary of State, which is appointed and then confirmed by the Senate in Texas. That person is now out of a job. The person who oversees the elections, as well as the governor, so I don't think that this is something you can look at and blame Democrat cheating. If you do, then you have to say then if a Republican state like Texas can't stop voter fraud, then who cares about the Save Act?

So you're you're self defeating in this logic. If you think that Texas is ripe for voter fraud when it's administered by the Abbott administration and they lost horrifically and horrendously by. Millions and millions of votes. No Republicans didn't turn out. They didn't show up.

They could have beaten the 5.9 million for Ted Cruz would have beaten James Talerico's 5.4 million, even with all the enthusiasm. Republicans stayed home and Republicans lost because of it. I will actually get another caller. And Dave, thanks. Let's go to Richard in California.

Richard, go ahead. Hi, I'm a Latino Republican that voted for Trump. And I wanted to make two comments on immigration and the House Senate. I got two minutes till the show is over, so just real quick. I'm sorry.

Okay, sorry.

So I mean, he two years too late. I mean, he had the ears open. The people of the country, people tend to vote morally instead of. I mean, tend to vote emotionally instead of morally. And he had it open.

He was a little bit. He could have worked with a little bit of immigration reform. For the people that were here, obviously, because we have a problem, obviously, with immigration, right? But we have a bad habit that America has caused, you know, created a crutch for cheap labor, and and and and open, which which we we need to stop, and I'm for that for immigration reform. But we don't just pull the rug out of anyone's feet.

That's here. There should have been a reform.

Now, if you can think, what like Trump, like we want to talk about what he can do, like Bush. Bush was a war, lost the house or the house in the Senate. He can either work with Democrats and reform. He can think, or he can or he can work work together. Yeah, and I believe that right now he's in a situation we have an unpopular war.

We have a house that has split, and he can work with Democrat. But it's all if we're going to work together.

So we. Hey Richard, I appreciate it. I'm only have to cut you off here because we are out of time. Hey Vicky, I am so sorry. You want to hold for a while.

I'm not going to be able to get to you today. Call in early, and I will make sure you are first up on the show tomorrow. Again, my apologies, Vicky, North Carolina. I appreciate it, Richard. I think that's true to that.

I think we live in a very different world than George W. Bush, compassionate conservatives. I don't think that's necessarily a good thing, but that is just the truth. But I think you you speak a lot of truth there as well. And again, a lot of these things being made a few days out of the election, you do wonder what would have happened if this was the policy six months ago.

But that's something you know, hindsight's twenty twenty. Again, support the work of the ACLJ during our Stand Strong challenge today. It's at aclj.org/stand. I want to appreciate everyone who tuned in and everyone that watched. Thank you so much.

I know a lot of you joined us for that breaking news item again with the White House on lockdown. I believe things are clearing up now for those who have been watching live. We'll continue to update you if there's anything else that breaks. But again, Stand Strong with the ACLJ. aclj.org.