transcript

Speaker 1:
[00:00] On today's show, Mayor Mamdani issues the most taxing threat on New York City.

Speaker 2:
[00:07] Keeping you informed and engaged. Now more than ever.

Speaker 3:
[00:11] This is Sekulow.

Speaker 4:
[00:14] We want to hear from you. Share and post your comments for call 1-800-684-3110.

Speaker 2:
[00:23] And now your host, Logan Sekulow.

Speaker 1:
[00:27] Welcome to Sekulow. We've got a great show lined up for you today. It's Monday. We're back here. I don't know what date is. Well, April 20th, I believe 2026. So if you guys are all paying attention, you'll know that we're live here. And of course, this weekend was busy for a lot of us. Maybe you're starting to wrap up your school year with your kids. You're starting to deal with all of the pressures that come in at the end of April, starting to head towards May, which seems to always be the craziest week, or craziest month for anyone with kids. That's right.

Speaker 4:
[00:55] School's wrapping up.

Speaker 1:
[00:55] It's just chaos. I would like to start that as a petition. Schools, how about we spread some of these events out? Okay? Why do we got to have May be have everything? Okay? I'm not doing field day in May. Simply not going to happen. But with that, or August for that matter, you know what? Let's find a nice time to do, or you know what? Skip it. With that, phone lines are open for you. 1-800-684-3110. That's not the main topic of the day. The main topic of the day puts our focus back on New York City, which you may have seen that somewhat alarming video by Mayor Maddami, who was tapping on the camera saying, it's Tax Day, everybody, guess what we're doing? We're gonna start taxing the rich. As I said, we're gonna do, and here's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna stand in front of a home, a private property of someone, a billionaire, who paid over $200 million for his penthouse. I'm gonna call the guy out by name. Some of this paying already absorbent share property taxes and just investing in the city without, by the way, using any of this, it's the fact that he's like, he's never here. So without putting any stress on the city, not using any of public utilities, any public transport, just essentially sinking money into your city, saying we're gonna make them not only pay their fair share, we're gonna make them pay so much more and does it with delight. Again, it's all the messaging you thought was gonna come from him has come even more and more. And look, he's a gifted speaker, a gifted orator. I've said it in the beginning, great at social media. If you try to downplay that, I think you're blind because it's just simply not true. He's there with Barack Obama this weekend, reading to kids in one of these student center. You may not like it, but he's good at these kind of things. He does resonate with people. Now, if you've been in New York City recently, and I think of New York City, as he said, one of the greatest cities in the world, I agree with him. That'd probably be the one thing we agree on. I believe this is one of the greatest cities in the world. I think it needs to be protected really at all costs. And when you saw what happened to this great city over the last 10 years or so, you have seen really a really chaotic and catastrophic change in that city. You talk about the 70s, 80s and the 90s, and then of course it comes back around when you have the Giuliani mayorship and cleans up the city and really it becomes a family destination, changes the world, Disney comes in, everything comes in, and how quickly that could unravel. You know, survives 9-11, goes through all of these trials that really should have ended or taken a big hit for New York City. And what ends up killing it is the fact that you have leadership that essentially is just driving people out in droves. As someone that, if I was blessed enough, would find myself wanting to invest in that city, finds myself going, no, I believe I will invest if I'm out of state in somewhere like Florida.

Speaker 4:
[03:55] That's right. And what we will break down is he went on this kind of tour over the weekend. He went on NBC with Kristen Welker, trying to sell this idea to everyone. As we know that he ran on these ideas of taxing the rich, and now that he's in this position to make it happen, we are seeing it happen. We'll also break down who actually does pay the majority of the taxes in New York. It's probably not something he would like to admit, but it's pretty shocking when you see how much the rich is already taxed and how they are squandering that as Democrat leadership has for decades in that city.

Speaker 1:
[04:31] Well, lads, we're open for you, and because, look, what happens in New York does not stay in New York. It goes nationwide. We know this happened, say, within California. The creep is real. So, of course, this could be coming for any of your towns, any of your states. And, look, you have a state like Florida. They're doing great right now. Not historically, it's always been the reddest of red states. That's only in pretty recent histories. Let's talk about that. 1-800-684-3110. I'll support the work of the ACLJ. aclj.org. We'll be right back. Welcome back to Sekulow. Phone lines are open for you. They're starting to fill up at 1-800-6884-3110. We're gonna hear from the mayor of New York City himself, Mayor Mamdani. And look, when he ran, it was pretty much the writing was on the wall that this guy was gonna run away with it. Of course, it got close, but he did do that. Why? Great social media team, great speaker, attractive guy, like puts on a good show, met with President Trump, won probably a lot of people over doing those kinds of things, making these moments. But what's been interesting with Mayor Mamdani is where I thought, okay, when he started doing stuff like meeting with President Trump, like, okay, so this was a political game to run as this sort of extremist. And then now we're gonna kind of normalize ourselves, bring ourselves a little bit closer to the middle. We're gonna see what happens when there are potential terror attacks outside of your own property, when all of these things start happening, where there are issues beyond normal New York issues. And we know there's incredible amount of debt in New York. There's a lot of things that have to be taken care of. And maybe we're gonna see someone who ran as more of an extremist, but also very fun and popular, and then could work his way to the middle. What we've actually seen is that he will talk to people like President Trump, but his positions are further and further away from the middle and go to the point where you, it's kind of angering.

Speaker 4:
[06:27] Well, and here's why this matters for everyone watching that doesn't live in New York. Because what we've seen is now this proposal that is going to put a heavy tax on what, according to their own press release, they call the ultra wealthy and global elites. So one, they're already starting to use some of the language that conservatives have used for a long time, the global elites, that kind of angle, that's what they're framing it as. And two, they're letting him be the spokesperson of this when this will be a state referendum. This will be a goes through the assembly in New York. It is actually will have to be signed by the governor.

Speaker 1:
[07:06] But she's in favor, so I think we need to bring that up.

Speaker 4:
[07:08] They have released this together between the governor, Kathy Hochul, and Mamdani. This is his proposal, but it's not the city council. It's not the mayor's office. This will become state law for the city to get this through. So that's one, but they're letting him be the face of it, instead of it being the governor and the state politicians taking the fall for this. But also, you see, they're putting him out there with Barack Obama. They're letting him go on Meet the Press to sell this. And even on there, he is still pushing his idea of socialism, and with his charming face to many people, being next to Barack Obama, all of these things. Now, he even agrees he's not eligible to run for president, but they are trying to mainstream his ideology. And so it doesn't just stop in New York City. This is what they're going to be pushing after the midterms for their next presidential candidate. They want it to be in the vein of the New York mayor, and they believe they can do it. We should play this bite before...

Speaker 1:
[08:11] Before we do, I think this is what's also interesting to keep an eye out, is people have done similar things like this. They have targeted what you would say are the extremely wealthy people in society. And look, I understand that's a pretty easy target for a lot of people that are suffering, or a lot of people, middle class, who are in need, to go, okay, I'm not going to have a care for someone that can afford a $200 million apartment. I don't care what they get. There's an easy disconnect there for the mass majority of people. But I think what's different, instead of using words like high-income earners or people that have done this, it's saying elites, it's saying the rich, it's demonizing people who have either had incredible business success or have done things in this country, probably employ thousands of people. There's a demonization of that, that we need to be very well aware of. It's obviously anti-capitalist and we know that's where he stands. But when it comes to the situation at hand, he's calling someone out by name. He's calling a CEO out by name. We know what happened to even people on the streets of New York. When you had someone that had up one of the larger financial institutions, and happens to get gunned down in the street, you start playing with fire very quickly. You had someone throw a bomb that thankfully did not go off. While I was in New York City, in front of your place of residence, a few weeks ago at this point, a month ago. But you're able to go out there and call out people who have invested extreme amounts of money into your city. Again, without putting any stress on your city, again, probably employ a lot of people to maintain that property. Then all of a sudden, all the people that they pay in general. But let's hear from the governor. That's probably right. What's next? Here's from Mayor Madhavi. Which one do you apply?

Speaker 4:
[10:00] Let's play Byte 14. This is on Meet the Press just yesterday. Talking when he's directly asked, now you're seeing how government works from the inside. Do you still believe in democratic socialism, Byte 14?

Speaker 5:
[10:12] Now that you've bumped up against the hard realities of a $5.4 billion budget shortfall and the other red tape that you have to go through, do you still believe in democratic socialism? Do you still think it can be effective?

Speaker 6:
[10:25] I believe in it even more than I did the day before, and that's because of the fact that it is focused on the needs of working people, and working people need that focus, that fight from politicians more than ever.

Speaker 4:
[10:36] And here's the problem, right? Because you would think that getting into government, seeing the red tape, as she calls it, seeing the bureaucracy would make you be like, oh, maybe I can become more pragmatic. No, he's saying he believes in democratic socialism even more. The entire tax structure of the United States, and in New York as well.

Speaker 1:
[10:58] He wasn't gonna say no.

Speaker 4:
[10:59] Well, sure, but at the same time, he is still going for these policies and trying to push this tax on the ultra wealthy global elites, as he says. But the origins of our tax code even, the first income tax was only targeting the rich. It was only targeting people that made $90,000 to $100,000 in that day's money. So it was around $3,000 to $4,000 in 1913, which is insane to think about, the inflation and monetary policy we've had over 113 years. But still, it was the top earners had a 1% tax on their income. And then there was a surtax if you made what was the today's equivalent of $15 million. And it was supposed to stop at that. But tax policy tends to creep downwards. And here in New York, the top 1% of earners in New York, the top 1%, the ultra wealthy, the global elites that they're talking about, they pay 46% of the income taxes. So all of the tax money that's brought in, 46% is paid by 1%. And yet, they're saying, we gotta tax the rich, we gotta tax the rich. No, you do. But what happens? You start there and it trickles down. And slowly, then everyone's gonna end up getting this. And here's the questions I have about this legislation they're putting forward. Because if you don't, it says if you don't live in our city and if you have a property worth over $5 million, you're gonna get hit with this tax. But yeah, they're trying to make it more affordable for people. Is there a provision that says if your landlord lives in New Jersey, right across the Hudson, and owns a one to three-family home, a three-family home is going to be worth more than $5 million in New York City, just existing. Is your rent gonna go up? Because they're probably gonna have to charge that surcharge tax on your landlord. So then once again, the inadvertent policy of like, look, we're only going after the rich. No, then everyone starts paying more in rent, and it makes the city more unaffordable. And your democratic socialism that you so deeply believe in more every day is the problem. It is the Democrat policies of this city for decades that created this problem. It's not more taxing, it's they keep giving more away. And then they have to find the money somewhere because services aren't free. And what do we have? Now a new way to tax the rich that they're celebrating that isn't going to end at taxing the rich. It's going to be taxing every New Yorker out of existence in that city.

Speaker 1:
[13:46] I mean, there's a few options here. It devalues your property so you want to leave because all of a sudden you're paying taxes on a property, it wasn't worth it. Or like I said, everyone just packs up and says, fine, I'm going to go to a state that's more accommodating for me if it is a second property or home. And I understand a lot of people want a property in New York City. It's one of the capitals of the world, as I said, the capital of the world where business gets done or did. Now, you still see massive vacancy in New York. When you go through, you see buildings, apartment buildings, office buildings that are largely empty, all over the city that never really recovered from COVID. It's sad. You see things though have gone up. Go try to travel to New York. Go try to have an affordable vacation. It simply is not really in the cards anymore. You go to a Broadway show, a first-run Broadway show, you're gonna be spending upwards of $300 a ticket. And that is if you're going to something that's not all that popular. It will go up and up from there. It is not the place you go to if you can afford or if you can't afford it. Now, is there a housing crisis there? Has there always been an issues there with income, let's say disparity, where people are not making enough money to live in the city? Yes, that has been a problem in New York City probably since the dawn of New York City. That has always been a problem when you have such expensive real estate and sometimes you're not paying people quite enough. But look, we're looking at this right now with, there's a big violent drag race protest with Palestinian flags and queens right now. This happened over the weekend. The cities are a mess. And again, this is coming from someone myself who loves that city, who's lived there, who's spent time there, was never a resident though, Will. See, that probably would have been a problem. I didn't own a property though, either, I was renting. But with that, I want to hear from you, 1-800-684-3110, 1-800-684-3110. Because again, this could creep all the way to you. Rick Ronell is going to be joining us also coming up a little bit later. We'll take things a bit more global with him. And we'll hit any of the topics. Is there something else you want to talk about this week that happened over the weekend? Let me know, 1-800-684-3110. We'll be right back with more on Sekulow. Welcome back to Sekulow. Phone lines are open for you at 1-800-684-3110, 1-800-684-3110. I wanna pivot a little bit, talk about the work of the ACLJ, cause you gotta remember what we're fighting for here, folks. This is wrapping up, really, we're starting ahead there. We're on the 20th, that means we only got 10 days left, really, of our ACLJ Double the Difference Drive. And after that, I give you a little break. We're not gonna be pitching quite as hard, because right now, it's only through the end of the month, is your donation doubled when donations are unlocked by people that are ready to match whatever it is that you give. We are in court today. We have a major filing tomorrow. Later this week, we have a Supreme Court battle happening. All of this happens, because people like you support the work of the ACLJ. That's why I got that QR code up on the screen right now. None of these are small fights, even if it's an individual has global ramifications. We are fighting battles for life, for faith and for freedom, and they're happening right now. And what I want you to see right now is a special video presentation that our team put together. They were recently able to spend some time, the ACLJ team, our incredible crew, in the National Archives. And as we approach the 250th anniversary of this country's founding, we wanted to show you a bit more about what it is that we are continuing to fight for 250 years later. Take a look.

Speaker 3:
[17:46] The National Archives is America's record keeper. And that's important because it preserves our history, it preserves who we are as a people. There's an entire story that can be told here over 250 years. It's the American story, and it's told right here at the National Archives. And it's important that people all around our country and all around the world have an opportunity to visit these presidential libraries and the National Archives facilities and learn from this history. My name is Jim Byron, and I am the Senior Advisor to the Archivist of the United States, and I am currently performing the duties of the Archivist. The National Archives is the final repository for all of the records of the United States government going as far back as our founding. Everything up until World War I is actually in this building, and then after World War I, there are records all across the country. The understanding of history today absolutely helps to protect what the Founding Fathers wrote into those founding documents. Now, you look at the Bill of Rights, what in the original Bill of Rights is called Article III. Look what it promises, free speech, right to free assembly. Most fundamental qualities that we are able to enjoy as Americans came out of thoughtful debate and dialogue, but more importantly, principles, that these Founding Fathers could write in those those liberties into something that would survive, survive the test of time. This was a radical experiment. I mean, these were concepts that needed to be tried. And if you look at the effect 250 years after the Declaration of Independence, I'd say we're doing pretty well. For all those millions of people that come through the National Archives every year, and especially for the youngest visitors, I hope that they can take away, that they are the legatees of an incredible history, of 250 years of America, of the American story, that they carry forward the principles that our founding fathers enshrined into these founding documents. If we don't look back and understand our history, there's a real risk that going forward, we can lose it, lose that understanding of what drove these people 250 years ago to build a new government, to separate from the most powerful empire that the world had ever known. When you see young people walk through and have a chance to go up and be face to face with that tangible symbol of American freedom and American liberty, it's really something, and it's important to instill in them the knowledge of what came before them.

Speaker 1:
[20:43] And again, that was an exclusive look into the National Archives just for our team. So that's the access that we have right now, very cool. I'm glad our team can be up there. We'll have more of that kind of content throughout the year again, celebrating the 250th of America. And with that, celebrating the reason why we continue this fight.

Speaker 4:
[20:59] Well, and once again, a speech kind of went viral last week from Justice Thomas, where he was speaking at University of Texas in Austin at a celebration marking the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. And this is something he said in that speech. I think it's so timely, especially when you see that video, really celebrating and showcasing why these founding documents are important and why we preserve them, why we protect the original copies as a part of our history. Here's what Justice Thomas said. He said, as we meet today, it's unclear whether these principles will endure. At the beginning of the 20th century, a new set of principles of government was introduced into the American mainstream. The proponents of this new set of first principles, most prominently among them, the 28th president, Woodrow Wilson, called it progressivism. Since Wilson's presidency, progressivism has made many inroads in our system of government and our way of life. It has coexisted uneasily with the principles of the declaration. Because it is opposed to those principles, it is not possible for the two to co-exist forever. And that is the fight you're seeing play out in New York. It is the fight you see play out across this country, in California, in some of the bastions of this progressive ideology that tries to get more and more progressive as the days go on. But it's everywhere. It's why we have to fight in places like Houston and Atlanta for teachers that are trying to express their First Amendment rights, for pastors in Chicago using their First Amendment right. The principles of the Declaration of Independence, just as Thomas says, are not possible to coexist forever with the principles of progressivism. And that is why we can't let our guard down. Because even if it seems that we get precedent at the Supreme Court, we win a legislative battle, or a politician comes into office that supports the conservative ideals that we hold so dearly. We know that around the corner, there's another Mayor Mamdani, who is pushing even broader progressive ideals. Democratic socialism, they'll call it, to make it sound a little bit more palatable for the mainstream right now. But it all goes back to this. It's no irony or mystery why the father of progressivism was Woodrow Wilson, who also instituted the first income tax on Americans. The root is there, and it's not going away. And so we have to continue this fight at the ACLJ for the principles, for those documents. And that's why even sending our team to go film and spend time with the archivists to really unpack that. And there's more from that video you'll see as we get closer to the 250th anniversary of the country. But it is important to remember and to understand why these things are precious and why we have to fight for them.

Speaker 1:
[24:06] That's right. And with that, I want to take this next 50 seconds. Because some of you lose us here, you gotta go, understand it's a half hour in, maybe you gotta lunch break, whatever it may be. This is your time right now. So I'm gonna encourage you as we start to wrap up the last 10 days of this month, this is our last big push. Because this is the time when donations are doubled. Right now, if you can support the work of the ACLJ, which supports this show, all of our legal work and endeavors we've been doing for nearly 40 years, it is only because people like you support. Not major sponsors, not even major donors. It is mostly individuals. Mass majority, 99% are individual donors that give $50, $75, $20. But during these special months, they're doubled. Because someone else is ready to unlock their pledge. So do it right now, aclj.org/doubletoday.

Speaker 2:
[25:00] Keeping you informed and engaged. Now more than ever.

Speaker 3:
[25:04] This is Sekulow. And now your host, Logan Sekulow.

Speaker 1:
[25:10] Welcome to the second half hour. Sekulow for your Monday. It is April 20th and we are taking your calls at 1-800-684-3110. Talk a little bit about Mayor Mamdani. Of course, his push to not only tax the rich, but really pushing forward an agenda that taxes people who are investing in the city of New York. We're not using a lot of the essential needs of New York because they're not living there full time, as a lot of people do, by the way. I think probably most celebrities, most people involved in a lot of different industries, because it is a global headquarters, is where you go for business. There's about three of those cities, maybe in the country, or maybe three of those cities in the world, where there is global business happening at all times. And sometimes these people would rather have a place, or maybe they want to invest in the city. They want to put their money into the city. You know, I have a property in Florida. I feel very proud to have, you know, put my money into a state like Florida. I would love to be able to do that in New York. I would love to be able to do that in California, but right now they've made it nearly impossible for people that love their cities or understand the implications of it. Of course, he goes out and starts naming names, calling people out by name, which I've said is incredibly dangerous, by the way, when you're talking about not just taxing people, when you start naming names and really vilifying your own property owners, it becomes a very tricky situation for those people and their security. You've seen people gunned down on the streets of New York City for this, for being known as someone who was wealthy or was, they felt unfair. So you're putting their lives in your hand, and you're really calling them out. I think that's a horrible thing to do. But in that situation, again, has the governor on board of New York? And again, of course, Kathy Hokel. So for all you clowns out there, send in those clowns. Remember, she was the one who famously said that. It's no laugh and matter at this point because you have a situation where not only do you have a mayor, because a lot of people said, well, he's going to make a lot of these claims, and he's not going to be able to get a lot of them done. Well, you got the governor on board.

Speaker 4:
[27:11] That's right. And I think that's the key point here, is that, yes, he can make the claims, and he can say, this is what I want for the city. But at the end of the day, he was limited at what he could do. The fact that he has already, this early into his mayoral term, been able to convince the governor of a state that... New York is an interesting state, because once you get out of the city, you do have very conservative areas of the state. Like some of the most conservative. And when you look at that in the contrast of how quickly he was able to get the governor on board for this, because of all the things he wants to spend money on, there's going to be a $5.4 billion shortfall in the city's finances, that they had to find a way to raise more money. This is at a time where, as I mentioned earlier, the top 1% of New Yorkers pay 46% of the income taxes in New York City. And what's honestly...

Speaker 1:
[28:09] It's actually not surprising.

Speaker 4:
[28:10] Not surprising, though, because it closely tracks it's more than federally, but the top 1% of federal income tax pays 40% of the money at the national level. So when you start to look at this, and they say, tax the rich, make the rich pay their fair share, this socialist ideology that is permeating the progressive left, it's all built on such a shaky foundation as it is, because I feel like it's hard to parse out to say, do you think 40% of all the money the government takes in is paid by 1% of the people? That's not enough. What is? 50%, 100%, where does it end? And that's what that ideology is. It isn't based off fairness or equity as they talk about. It is 100% flipping the script on the fundamentals of our economy and our founding documents.

Speaker 1:
[29:10] Yeah, and with that, we just showed a very special video presentation on those founding documents. Maybe we'll rerun that towards the end of the show as well. We'll keep that on deck just in case. I do want to hear from you at 1-800-684-3110. In the next segment, we're going to hear from Rick Rennell. But hey, I said it too fast. 1-800-684-3110. Have your voice heard today? I see all those clowns in the chat. Does my heart good, Will? It means they're long times.

Speaker 4:
[29:36] That's right.

Speaker 1:
[29:37] They've been with us for a while. You can keep sending those in. Let me know in the comments where you're watching from as well. We know we got a lot of New Yorkers who watch. How do you feel about this as well? Give me a call 1-800-684-3110. To say it again, support the work of the ACLJ. Do it today. Have your donation doubled and double the difference. Welcome back to Sekulow. Where should we take your calls a bit earlier? Rick had to reschedule at the last second here. Sometimes that happens. You have high level people. Sometimes things get in the way. So you know what? With that though, we're gonna take your calls a little bit earlier in the show. I usually don't do a hard pitch here, but look, this segment specifically, we were gonna pivot, talk a little bit about what was going on overseas. You may have just seen, not overseas, but about what's happening overseas. You may have seen the video that ran in the break. If you watch on our YouTube feed or watch on any of our exclusive streaming platforms, aclj.org, YouTube, Rumble, you see video packages our team put together, but they do a great job. They do those videos in hours each morning and compile the topics that we're talking about into those pieces for you to see, to have some sort of homework a little bit before we start talking about it. This comes out of LA, Will, and it is a woman who has been here, on a green card, it says 2016, Iranian, and again, nothing wrong with that. On paper sounds great, but they had to, or she was arrested, and why was she arrested?

Speaker 4:
[31:04] Well, she was an arms dealer, trafficking arms and facilitating the sale between Iran and the Sudanese armed forces. This is-

Speaker 1:
[31:14] You said arms a lot in a very brief.

Speaker 4:
[31:16] I wish they had gone to you, you were flexing.

Speaker 1:
[31:19] I think there was four arms, they were all doing it in there too, in the control room. You said arms, arms dealing.

Speaker 4:
[31:23] They were arms dealing, selling arms to the armed forces. You have to use those words in that sequence for the story to make sense, Logan. Words have meaning.

Speaker 1:
[31:33] I have four X the arms, let's go.

Speaker 4:
[31:35] So when you look at this though, it is quite shocking. This is someone who received a green card under the Obama administration. So before President Trump came into office, she got her green card 2016, and quickly after getting the green card, began working for Iran's Ministry of Intelligence and Security. She used an Omani shell company to move weapons and cash between the government and its proxies. Once again, remember, this is after the Iran nuclear deal with Obama. This is still what's going on. They were sending people here that brokered the sale of drones, bombs, bomb fuses, and millions of rounds of ammunition between Iran and the Sudanese armed forces. And here we have her living safely in the United States until she was picked up by our government. Once again, it shows the failure of these progressive policies all around. It plays into what we were talking about with Mamdani and the tax policy.

Speaker 1:
[32:39] We've had a decade.

Speaker 4:
[32:40] When you look at what's been going on between them trying to push these progressive ideas, the looseness of the immigration laws that were under the Obama administration, I want to know more. I want to know if she came on a asylum claim at first, trying to say, I'm trying to get away from Iran, when in reality she was working with the Iranians. I think that would tell us a lot. That's not in any of the reporting I've seen yet. We do know she did arrive here and did get a green card from the Obama administration to be able to become a permanent resident of the United States. And immediately after obtaining that, she began working with the Iranians to make money, a lot of money, trafficking in arms between the Sudanese, which are in an incredible, horrible civil war that is between Sudan and we know that the country is split into South Sudan, as well as still internal conflicts. The government there, very heavy handed, not human rights protectors, and yet she is facilitating these sales between the Iranian government and Sudan. All of this goes to show though, that the policies that are pushed, as Justice Thomas even referenced, that they can't coexist forever. And when you look at the way, how quickly they have made Mamdani the face of taxing the rich, even though those that would try to call themselves more mainstream Democrats, not a Democrat Socialist, are the ones carrying the water for it. Governor Hokel. You're gonna see that continue to happen. That is the fight. And so when you see Republicans or conservatives get in and want to do, what do we want to do? We want to end waste, fraud and abuse that could cause budget shortfalls, or we want to reform these bureaucracies that are so bloated and wasting money and spending money, that you become, you have no heart. You are wanting to just take away from people that need it. You don't care about the world. You're selfish. Or maybe you don't understand how the world works. You're naive. In reality, we're seeing how much the government's being defrauded and wanting to fix things. That, you're a bad person. But if you want, you know, looking at the tax policy, 1% already pays 46%. Let's find more ways to take money from people that have worked hard and earned it. It doesn't stop there. It's going to go through the entire system because the end game of Democrat Socialism is to not, you not own anything. It's to, why do they want to cap the price of rent? Well, then the landlords won't be able to raise their rates to pay for these taxes. They'll have to forfeit their properties. And then the savior, Mandami, will come in and say, hey, the government can take these properties and make it affordable housing. It strips everyone of their ownership, of their agency. You cannot be living under the principles of the Declaration of Independence and follow those progressive guidelines. And that is what they are trying to get, as Logan calls it, the capital of the world, one of America's great treasures in New York City.

Speaker 1:
[36:07] I feel like you said that is a slight, you're like, as Logan calls it.

Speaker 4:
[36:09] Well, I mean-

Speaker 1:
[36:10] He calls it that, a lot of people call it that.

Speaker 4:
[36:12] Right, it is, because it is. But what we have seen is it falling apart because of the decisions of these progressives.

Speaker 1:
[36:20] Yeah, and it really is sad. And I think this is where, honestly, our organization and our show is different than a lot of what you hear from, I guess you'd say, quote unquote, conservative commentators. And I'll be honest, this morning, when I was driving into work, I was flipping through all the major stations. You know, Series XM has CNN and Fox and SEC right back to back. So let's hear, Fox was yelling about how they hated all the people on one network, and then CNN was talking about how much they hated the other people, and MSNBC was hating everybody. It was so much negativity.

Speaker 4:
[36:54] It's MSNOW, by the way.

Speaker 1:
[36:55] I'm sorry, MSNOW. They hate everybody. There's so much negativity that you're giving them people no path to hope, no path to any sort of success. And I don't want this show to become that, because when I'm talking about New York City and the issues that are happening there, it's because I love New York City. We talk about Los Angeles is because I love Los Angeles. I've spent some of my most formative times in those cities, around those people, great people. Great people who, by the way, sure, may not vote the way you want them to vote. But look at what New York City put up. Let's just be honest. You had a disgraced governor who, again, I liked as a leader a little bit. I mean, he had some pretty radical stances that I definitely do not agree with. But for New York City, or for New York, you know, it was at least somewhat there. So someone who had been run through the mud for, you know, the last five years is your only alternative to a young, charismatic, incredibly well-spoken, entertaining man of the people, if you will. You may hate that I say that. I don't like really any of his positions. But I also am not blind. It is like Barack Obama. When you put someone like that up, they are gifted and they are gifted at speaking to people in a way that I had not seen anyone talk about a mayoral race in New York City like this in forever. Really forever. I don't mean that exaggerating. No one was talking about the mayoral race of New York City the way they were talking about this guy and it is because he's a young, charismatic, gifted speaker who you can disagree with everything. But if you were given the options, it was going to be very difficult if you were already a fairly liberal, which if you are likely living in New York City, there's a good chance the left liberal is going to win. You're going to engage a lot of voters to get on board. They had just come out of what they thought was issues with Eric Adams. They had come out of Governor Cuomo. There was so much that happened the last five years. You have all the people that come to New York City and you have a change of the guard. Now, again, my hope was that he would find himself in a situation where he sees the debt, he sees the issues and goes, OK, I'm a smart guy, I'm going to work my way towards the middle. That is not the way he has operated so far. The only, you know, I'd say walk across the aisle has been the fact that he did what honestly I thought was a pretty risky move for his base, which was going to the Oval Office and meeting with President Trump.

Speaker 4:
[39:30] That's right. And one thing you also said, you talked about that hope issue when you're hearing the news channels. And honestly, that has become one of the worst things about the online conservative community, is you're seeing many people with podcasts, with followings, influencers, that have become this kind of conservative nihilist. Yes. And where there is no hope. And I think, as you mentioned, what we showcase differently here is that we will continue to fight. I think you should always be skeptical of someone that doesn't tell you to continue the fight. If they're just saying, this is all bad, this is all rigged, this is all against you, and there is no hope, I would turn it off. I wouldn't listen to that person. And you're seeing that not only creep into the influencer class or in the media, but even when we bring up things about potential accountability, it's hard not to feel jaded or brought down a little bit. But we won't give up.

Speaker 1:
[40:33] It's a hard nut life.

Speaker 4:
[40:33] And we will continue that fight. And don't fall for this conservative nihilism that is pervasive right now, but it's anti-American.

Speaker 1:
[40:42] What do you think about that? Give me a call. What Will said. 1-800-684-3110. Next time, we'd like to take as many calls as we can. Maybe we'll take a peek back. And the National Archives will be right back. Welcome back to Sekulow, phone lines are open. We're gonna take a few more at 1-800-688-431-10. Talk a lot about Mamdani today. And hey, one of the things that came across my feed was that since, and this just shows you some of the issues happened in New York City, since the mayor hugged Mr. Mets.

Speaker 4:
[41:19] Saw that.

Speaker 1:
[41:20] The Mets have not won a single game. And that is, you know, at this point, we're a little bit into the season here. I mean, that's the thing with baseball. They play like dozens of games a week. It feels like it's absurd. It feels like we're a weekend. Like 18 and 7. I'm like, how? The opening day was a week ago. But that's just another fun fact.

Speaker 4:
[41:39] Well, also baseball.

Speaker 1:
[41:40] I didn't check that fact, by the way.

Speaker 4:
[41:42] Maybe wrong. It's notoriously the most superstitious sport. I mean, you think about like the Billy Goat curse with the Cubs. Oh yeah, I'm aware. Maybe that could, Mets fans could be like, we gotta get him out of office because we just, I mean, whatever about the state of the city, we gotta have our Mets win.

Speaker 1:
[42:02] Yeah, and I mean, Obama was like dabbing up Billy the Bull, that was happening, and that, they didn't even make the playoffs this year. So you know what? It's an issue with a liberal people coming to your city and they hug your mascots, done!

Speaker 4:
[42:18] Right.

Speaker 1:
[42:18] That's what happens. That's why my Orlando magic, I stayed in Florida. Stay away from stuff. Yeah. Well, no, Santa's okay.

Speaker 4:
[42:26] No, but I'm saying liberal. Oh, yeah.

Speaker 1:
[42:28] Mayor of Orlando. Don't you get near our dragon.

Speaker 4:
[42:31] That's right.

Speaker 1:
[42:32] All right. Phone lines are open for you at 1-800-684-3110. Let's take a call. Let's go to Todd in the great state of Georgia. Todd, go ahead.

Speaker 2:
[42:42] Hey, yes. I was calling about the situation with Iran, and in World War II, we had to destroy the ideology of the Third Reich and the Empire of the Sun, not just the military. I'm hoping they'll save a bunker-busting bomb for the well of the Mahdi in the Jamrankan province.

Speaker 4:
[43:02] Todd, I don't disagree with you that as long as the Islamic Republic in theory is the concept, that there will not be a liberated Iran. There also won't be a true, trustworthy leadership within Iran because the ideology, itself, is anti-Western, anti-American, really anti-humanitarian because of what the end game of the 12-er Islam, Shia Islam, that runs it. But to that point, I think it's also a lot more difficult with the set of cards that the president is playing with and wanting to play with, not wanting it to be a full invasion, not wanting it to be a full toppling of a regime, hoping that if there is that, it is from the people, which would be preferable. You'd rather have a revolution of the people than an imposed regime change by the outside. But that is part of the big problem. You did see a successful reentry of Germany and Japan into the global order after World War II. You think about that we are very close with Japan. We are one of our biggest trading partners.

Speaker 1:
[44:19] We are very predictable when you really think about under 100 years.

Speaker 4:
[44:21] Two atomic bombs on the country and are very close with them and they are one of the greatest technology nations on Earth.

Speaker 1:
[44:31] This is where my family would like to vacation.

Speaker 4:
[44:33] Right, you don't think of that. And a lot of that has become, because it is a different type of enemy, it's more insurgent, at least that's what we faced in Iraq.

Speaker 1:
[44:42] And they rebuilt.

Speaker 4:
[44:43] This with Iran, if done correctly, would be something more in the line of a Germany or Japan, because Iran had such a technological and scientifically advanced society historically, and in some ways are a lot more advanced in the ways, and when you compare it towards Afghanistan or any of the even neighboring countries, even if you think of Libya and things of that nature, of how the fall of their despot didn't necessarily bring about this great change. But what we have in Iran is something different. And that's why I think there is so much hope for the people of Iran and the Persian people to rejoin the world on a stage that is not what it is, not this pariah that is seeking destruction of neighbors, and just for their family, their background, who they are. That is what we hope for Iran, that it could come out of that. And that's why there has been some disappointment, I think, between you and me on this show with the way some of this has played out, is that you could have gone.

Speaker 1:
[46:00] The way you worded that was that people have disappointment in you and me on this show.

Speaker 4:
[46:04] Well, no, that is a given.

Speaker 1:
[46:05] That's true.

Speaker 4:
[46:06] I meant you and I.

Speaker 1:
[46:07] Everyone in the comments is going to sleep right now.

Speaker 4:
[46:08] But I'm so sorry.

Speaker 1:
[46:10] Is that because of us? What's happening here?

Speaker 4:
[46:11] It's a Monday.

Speaker 1:
[46:12] They're all wishing each other good night. I just had to bring that up. It's a very strange occurrence here.

Speaker 4:
[46:16] Good night and good luck.

Speaker 1:
[46:18] Is there something happening we don't know about? We're kind of in a bunker.

Speaker 4:
[46:22] No, but I would say also that we have wanted this to be more of that type of regime change, and that's not really what the president's doing.

Speaker 1:
[46:31] That's what I was hoping for early on, and I remember even getting into some little minor debates with some of my friends there on the other side, going, look, if this is the plan, this is going to be great. And a lot of them pushed back on me and said things like, it's not going to happen. You're not going to have regime change. They're very pessimistic on it. You know what, I hate to say it, maybe they were right. You know, like when I look back on it, I go, maybe I was a little too optimistic that the hope for a free Iran was too grand of a goal. I don't think so. I think if you're going to go to war, you better have some clear motives. And that should have been one of the top ones. And don't claim regime change now, which they have, just because it's different people. Because I don't really care that much, I didn't care about it then, of the people who are in charge. I care to how they were treating their people. I care to how the people who were in the streets were being slaughtered. That's who I care about. I don't care if it's just a different leader, a different Ayatollah of the Islamic Republic. That's no interest to me. My interest was, can you free the people? And I'm hopeful there's still a plan for that. Or we call this thing and we wrap it up. And President Trump, as much as people will give him credit, there are things like saying they're never going to close the Strait of Hormuz again. And then we wake up this morning and they've at least closed it somewhat again. And then they've had some skirmishes, if you will, if that's saying, you know, it's taken people a little at their word when you're dealing with an Islamic Republic of Iran. You're dealing with a very untrustworthy group that you're negotiating quote unquote deals with. We gotta be very careful with that. With that being said, the work of the ACLJ continues. Even if everyone in the chat's going to sleep, I didn't see why.

Speaker 4:
[48:17] No, I did. It's one original X-Man goes to sleep, he works at night, sleeps during the day, watches our show and goes to bed every day after he watches.

Speaker 1:
[48:25] So this puts him, this is his- White noise. Yeah, I guess that's good. There's some podcasts I put on that do that for me. I don't know if I wanna be one for someone, but you know, you're welcome here. Look, if the numbers are there, it's fine with me. With that, speaking of the numbers, we only got 10 days left here in our final days. Let's throw up that QR code. In the double the difference drive. The ACLJ, we're working on multiple fronts here. You know, the media side, this show is just a small portion of the work of the ACLJ. It contributes a lot. I mean, it's probably half of the work that we do here, but no, the other half, we are in the courtroom for you at no cost. And nothing we do is at a cost. You don't get to pay to watch this show, you have to subscribe to anything. If you do wanna subscribe, it's free. That's like to our email list, or maybe you wanna subscribe on YouTube, that's excellent. But the ACLJ work, and again, the media side, and of course our legal side only happens because of you. If you've been with us for a long time, you've heard me say this before, but it's absolutely true. We're in court, we're pushing back, we're filing, we're doing all those things. We're doing a daily broadcast for you. We're cutting that up into mini clips that you can share with your friends. We're creating white papers, we're doing so much, at no cost. But that's only because you support the work, and during these very special months, and right now, through the end of the month, 10 days left, you can double the difference. Your donation will be matched completely. Whatever you can donate, whether that is $5 or $5,000 or more, have it matched, double your impact, double the difference. Your donation's doubled today.