transcript

Speaker 1:
[00:00] We've got a major update, Iran seizes ships in the Strait of Hormuz.

Speaker 2:
[00:06] Keeping you informed and engaged.

Speaker 3:
[00:08] Now more than ever.

Speaker 4:
[00:09] This is Sekulow.

Speaker 5:
[00:13] We want to hear from you.

Speaker 3:
[00:14] Share and post your comments or call 1-800-684-3110. And now your host, Logan Sekulow.

Speaker 1:
[00:25] Welcome to Sekulow, act show today. CC. Howes will be joining us. Will Haynes in studio right now. Look, overnight there was a lot of news that broke. There was a statement from the White House saying essentially that the ceasefire would continue to an indefinite amount of time till a proposal could be made. At the same time, Iran was seizing ships in the Strait of Hormuz. Two ships were actually seized. One ship, I believe, was also targeted, is now disabled off of Iran's coast. This comes in a moment that I think we all need to have a little bit of self-reflection because I feel like we're talking out of two sides of our mouths here. We're hearing statements coming out of the White House saying, the ceasefire is continuing, all's good, things are happening, things are moving forward. At the exact same moment, you have Iran attacking ships and seizing them. We have a mass confusion moment happening here, and I think we have to be very well aware of it as we move towards the end of this year, to move towards the back half of the year, of what this actually is gonna look like with this war in Iran. It almost feels like the amount of times we've now been told that there is some form of agreement or ceasefire or it's never gonna close or it's gonna close again, to then flip that and have moments like this where almost at the exact same moment, you have a statement from the White House saying, the exact opposite of what is actually being reported and happening, we need to have some self-reflection here and go, okay, where are we in this conflict? Why is the White House making these statements? And why can we not kind of level that playing field a little bit? Get a little bit closer to what's happening.

Speaker 5:
[02:15] That's right, so when you look at what happened, three ships were fired upon by the Iranians. Two of them were seized, they were escorted to Iranian waters, and those were cargo ships. One was owned by a Greek company, other, I believe one was owned out of Geneva, Switzerland. But these are just cargo ships that were going through the Strait of Hormuz. And as you mentioned, this is at the time when President Trump had put this statement out that said, Based on the fact that the government of Iran is seriously fractured, not unexpectedly so, and upon the request of Field Marshal and Prime Minister of Pakistan, we have been asked to hold our attack on the country of Iran until such a time as their leaders and representatives can come up with a unified proposal. I have therefore directed our military to continue the blockade and in all other respects remain ready and able and will therefore extend the ceasefire until such a time as their proposal is submitted and discussions are concluded one way or the other. But as you point out, this is when Vice President Vance yesterday canceled his trip to Pakistan.

Speaker 1:
[03:22] We need to actually address that. So as we were going off air, like in the last segment of the show, the narrative shifted once again because there was a moment yesterday where Vice President Vance was headed to Pakistan for what was going to be, I guess you would consider round two, but in some ways multiple rounds, but the round two in person of negotiations. At the last second, it was called off.

Speaker 5:
[03:43] That's right. And so he did not go. This statement does reflect what we were saying on air, is that how do you really trust who you're negotiating with as being able to really put forward a deal that they can hold to. And that's what it reflects. It says it's seriously fractured, not unexpectedly so. We've been saying that. Now they're giving more time on a ceasefire, but Iran is still being brazen. There was videos of them parading a ballistic missile. If you're asking me, if I were the Secretary of War, advising the president, I would say enough, stop giving them time, finish the job.

Speaker 1:
[04:18] Yeah, exactly. Or at least define what finishing that job is. They did have, like Will said, a parade yesterday. And who knows, again, a lot of this is obviously propaganda. These are moments that are coming. But it's not good for the United States imagery. It's not good. I mean, I've seen the comments come in. There's a lot of people saying, I'm not sure how we proceed. What do we do here? I'm at a loss. Our audience is not usually at a loss. I will say they typically, they agree or disagree with me pretty aggressively. But today I see and feel with them. Phone lines are open. I'd love to hear from you. 1-800-684-3110. What do you think about this? 1-800-684-3110. I'll be right back. Welcome back to Sekulow. This topic, I think we need to restate, I see a lot of you joining us right now on YouTube and Rumble and all of our different social platforms and podcast platforms. I know a lot of you are seeing the title right now with Iran, take ships hostage in the Strait of Hormuz. What does that mean? What does it actually look like? Because you may have seen that title and have some questions or comments related to it. Because at the exact same moment last night, when a lot of us went to sleep, there was a statement from the President of the United States that said, based on the fact that this is a written statement from the White House, I think President Trump also put out a true social post that was maybe a bit more in his own words. But this was, based on the fact that government of Iran is seriously fractured, not unexpectedly so. And upon the request of Field Marshal and Prime Minister, I'm not going to say their names, I don't want to butcher anyone's names.

Speaker 5:
[05:47] I did the same, I skipped over them as well.

Speaker 1:
[05:49] I saw you do that earlier. We have been asked to hold our attacks on the country of Iran until such a time as their leaders and representatives can come up with a unified proposal. I therefore directed our military to continue the blockade, we'll discuss what that means. And in all other respects, remain ready and able to extend the ceasefire until such a time as their proposal is submitted and discussions are concluded one way or another. So you read this and you go, okay, the war is on perpetual hold. I mean, look, no one wants war. I think that's a good thing. But then at the same time, same place and about the same thing, when you say there's a blockade happening right now, we need to get into what the blockade currently stands at and what that means. You have ships flying different flags who are being seized in the Strait of Hormuz. This is happening right now. As we are saying, we're in a perpetual ceasefire because essentially the leadership is not structured enough to put together a serious proposal. This is some of the concerns with us still dealing with an IRGC. This is all the concerns we've had since the very beginning, which was, what is the goal? Is the goal full regime change, i.e. freedom of the Iranian people? Which I can fully get behind in support. Or is it now trying to figure out how to get out of this conflict? And it led me a little less unscathed. While at the exact same moment, you have the seizing of these vessels, and again, continuing the ceasefire, but also continuing the blockade, because the blockade is still putting a stranglehold on Iran.

Speaker 5:
[07:33] That's right. So what we're looking at here, and I'll lay it out for you, is-

Speaker 1:
[07:37] I feel like that meme with Charlie Damon, like, ah, you know, like, trying to put it all together?

Speaker 5:
[07:41] Well, when you have the two-week ceasefire, that was to try and get to a deal. The deal that the president has repeatedly stated that he cares about is Iran no longer being a nuclear state, having no longer having the ability to produce or manufacture nuclear weapons. When you look at what that first proposal, the talks that fell apart, that happened when the vice president went to Pakistan. Now, it sounded like there was-

Speaker 1:
[08:07] Which feels like that was three months ago.

Speaker 5:
[08:08] Right.

Speaker 1:
[08:09] It was what, a week ago?

Speaker 5:
[08:10] A little bit over a week ago. When you start to look at even the intentions that it seems the administration is trying to put forward and saying, we will negotiate on this issue. They started to put out signs that maybe it was getting closer, that they were seeing some signs that maybe they could get closer to something that they would agree to. We talked about that earlier in the week. Maybe the relief of sanctions, if they are getting rid of their nuclear program and their terror proxies. These are things that would be getting towards what the president has set his goal is. Now, you take that in the context that the ceasefire, part of the ceasefire agreement with Iran is we will stop bombing you. You will leave the Strait of Hormuz open and you will stop shooting back at us and the Gulf neighbors. It took them a while to get there because they played that game with Lebanon. Finally there was a Lebanon ceasefire with Israel and they kind of stopped shooting. But they opened the Strait for a little while. Then we imposed the blockade on Iranian cargo only.

Speaker 1:
[09:17] So Iranian cargo cannot leave Iran.

Speaker 5:
[09:20] They cannot leave the ports in Iran to go through the Strait of Hormuz to give an economic lifeline to the regime. We have been enforcing that since the talks fell apart in Pakistan as a way to force their hand a little bit more.

Speaker 1:
[09:32] And this statement says that continues.

Speaker 5:
[09:34] That continues. The ceasefire, they say, will also continue. There's been an update to that from the White House staff saying three to five days is what the president is thinking of extending the ceasefire.

Speaker 1:
[09:46] If that's what this statement is?

Speaker 5:
[09:48] So this is post the statement where the statement says until such a time as their proposal is submitted, the White House has clarified saying they think it's three to five days. It's a mess.

Speaker 1:
[09:59] This is where we got to get things back on target. You can't say indefinitely or whatever the words are. I mean, essentially respond to this. I therefore direct our military to continue. And what does it say here? What's the exact words?

Speaker 5:
[10:10] It says therefore extend the ceasefire until such a time as their proposal is submitted.

Speaker 1:
[10:15] Such a time does not indicate three to five days. That does not include less than a week. Such a time feels like a perpetual indefinite.

Speaker 5:
[10:24] That we're just done.

Speaker 1:
[10:25] That we're done.

Speaker 5:
[10:25] And we're going to keep negotiating it out.

Speaker 1:
[10:28] And then to have now a second statement really saying three to five days. Okay, too many cooks in the kitchen. What's happening here where this feels like it is a PR issue right now. Where you don't want to say war is PR or that is something that we're talking about here. But you do want to feel secure and safe and that your country is being represented correctly. And right now it is talking out of 10 sides of their face.

Speaker 5:
[10:53] Well, and I think that we had so much advantage, so much leverage, even when we went into this ceasefire and gave them a chance. But here's the reality. Even the statement acknowledges it, that their government is so fractured. You have so many different factions that are trying to vie for power. Yes, there is a supreme leader that has been anointed, the son of the Ayatollah, that is now leading, that no one's seen or heard from, but you're getting some statements coming out. Sure, whatever. We know that in reality, the IRGC and different factions within the IRGC and the Mullahs and the other politicians are vying for power to lead Iran under the banner of the Islamic Republic. You're never going to get a deal with them that's satisfactory because as soon as that person does, they will be taken out internally by their own people. They're like, you gave too much away to the Americans. The only way to end the nuclear ambitions of the Islamic Republic of Iran is to end the Islamic Republic of Iran, and that is to bring about change in a real meaningful way with a free Persian people leading a new nation.

Speaker 1:
[12:09] And remember folks, day one of this conflict, before we could even realize it was happening, the leadership had been all but taken out. Every name that you knew as the leaders of Iran were taken out. So we had the strategic military ability, the United States and Israel, to be able to take out their top leadership almost immediately. But now, what, five weeks, six weeks in, where were we at at this point? I mean, maybe more.

Speaker 5:
[12:37] I think we just hit eight weeks.

Speaker 1:
[12:39] Eight weeks in.

Speaker 5:
[12:40] Yeah.

Speaker 1:
[12:41] Eight weeks in, really not much more has been done. I mean, let's just be honest, other than some of the negative impact that has had on the American people, including obviously gas prices and those kinds of things that I'm seeing in the chat, I'm seeing people comment saying, you know, this can't keep going on. We're really dealing with this crisis right now. I get it. I get the frustration. You can probably hear it in my voice, the frustration because, look, early on in the days when I was called to justify why we were doing this, I believe that there was a real reason this needed to be happening. I still think there's a reason it should be happening. But this mess of public relations, this mess of counter statements and statements upon statements and statements upon statements while at the same time, Iran is seizing ships. Now, I do want to clarify because some people ask, these ships, not American ships.

Speaker 5:
[13:31] Correct.

Speaker 1:
[13:32] So, not that we shouldn't care.

Speaker 5:
[13:35] But it is, once again, it is putting strain on the global economy. The shipping that goes through there, once again, we'll say it, 20% of the world's oil goes through the Strait of Hormuz. So right there, they not only are causing economic damage to those companies that are shipping and whatever goods and things may be on there, whether it's oil or other manufacturing things that are being shipped on these large container ships, but it also puts a stress on the economy of that this could happen more. When you take out three, the market is gonna respond globally to, ah, we could be in a bad place again.

Speaker 1:
[14:12] The uncertainty rises.

Speaker 5:
[14:14] Here's the other big problem too. One, I understand the blockade, and that's been done very well to put a choke point on the Iranian regime of economic viability, and that that could get to a point where the people of Iran, because the police and the military stop getting paid because they're running out of money, that they revolt, that they stop following the orders of the IRGC and the regular army turns on the IRGC. That's a strategy that I'm sure is a part of this. Here's also the problem. When the president says he doesn't want a long drawn out forever war, by moving the goalpost on this ceasefire, by then making it kind of open ended and then kind of clawing it back a little bit, the uncertainty is there that could put it into a position of making it last a lot longer.

Speaker 1:
[15:03] Yeah, hey, hey, hey, look, I'm watching your comments. I know some of you agree with us, some of you disagree with us. That's fine. That's why the phone lines are open for you. Give me a call at 1-800-684-3110, 1-800-684-3110. I also want to take a pivot here just for a second and say, we're halfway through the week. We are seven days or so away from the end of our double the difference drive. You can make a big impact today for the legal work of the ACLJ, for the media side, if you enjoy this broadcast. Like I always tell you, we're going to be honest with you. I'm going to tell you the truth whether you want to hear it or not. We're not kowtowing one way or the other. If we think that there's issues that need to be brought up, we're always going to bring it up. That is because there's no one deciding what this show is or what it isn't. There's no major sponsors that are deciding that. There's no major network deciding that. We are fully independent. That is because people like you support the work financially. And know that I very much appreciate that. Go to aclj.org. You can double your difference today. Have that matching gift unlocked. We'll be right back. Sekulow, some of you also are calling in about the Virginia referendum. It did pass, right? Overwhelmingly. I mean, they called it pretty early, so you will have a new redistrict temporarily, at least through the next presidential election. That doesn't reek of a very unbiased or very biased new district. I watched, even again, I watched some of my friends who posted about it, and it was just this idea of, you can take your morals aside to vote for this. And it was so bizarre to see that be the messaging point, just because it's against what they think are issues with Republicans, saying, I don't care if it's in my state, I'm happy to do it. So that's where we're at. We'll talk about that a little bit more. I know some of the calls are coming in. But a lot of you are calling in specifically about this current situation in Iran and the conversation that surrounds it, whether it's the statements from the White House, whether it's the statements from President Trump, whether it's what's actually happening, where ships are being seized in the Strait of Hormuz, while at the same time we're talking about a indefinite ceasefire. Then in that moment, they double down on that and say, no, not indefinite, three to five days. But then that's not what the statement said. We're in this circle. It feels like you're in a washing machine of different things happening where there's ceasefire stops and it just keeps going and going. I want to take a call related to that. You got something?

Speaker 5:
[17:26] Yeah, yeah. We're going to take a call. We're going to get to this. And then we are going to give a quick update after that with CC. Heil on some of our work. So let's go to a call first.

Speaker 1:
[17:34] OK, let's go ahead. Let's go to Ronald in South Carolina. Always a good call. Ronald, go ahead.

Speaker 2:
[17:39] Yeah, thanks for taking my call. And I enjoyed what you, Logan and Will have said, because you were spot on as to just literally a splintered government over there because it's a war torn country now because of what the American military has done to that place. And I was wondering if they actually do have communications, but who knows, it could be part of their strategy just to continue to wreak havoc and make America look bad because it seems like the words that are coming out are opposite of what they're actually seeing in actual real life, what's going on.

Speaker 1:
[18:18] I can't assume that we are somehow, and I've seen some of the chat saying that we are somehow smarter than the current administration to understand that we cannot trust the words coming out of the IRGC. I have to believe that they have the same thought process as us. I don't understand the idea of making these statements public. I understand of having these negotiations. Sometimes these negotiations are happening, like you said, with who knows who it is, who knows who's actually in charge. There clearly is some method of communication that is happening between Iran and the United States government. But it's this double downing on statements to make it feel like there is progress happening. And when overnight, each time, things shift, it's not unlike Putin, you know, where a President Trump even said, I would come out of a meeting with Putin, at least he was honest about that one, would come out with a meeting with Putin and say, that was great. And then before he could even tell it, Melania would turn to him and say, why are they still bombing the children? They're bombing a children's hospital. There is that understanding. It doesn't seem to be happening in Iran. And it's probably because we are directly involved in this conflict, not the middle man between Russia and Ukraine.

Speaker 5:
[19:27] And there's also the point as well that we know that our intelligence services, the military intelligence, the CIA, things of that nature are getting better intel during this ceasefire. There is that part as well. And I doubt that it is, oh, we have to extend it indefinitely to keep getting that intel. But they are not just sitting back idly and not doing anything. They are finding the new targets. They are finding the new leadership. They are also finding other ways to maybe bring about a collapse of the regime, if that is a part of the strategy that's unstated. But that is going on as well. I do want to take a little bit of a pivot here.

Speaker 1:
[20:05] Stay on hold if you're on hold, by the way.

Speaker 5:
[20:07] Because we are going to get right back to this issue. But we brought in CC. We've talked a lot about the issues in Massachusetts, where they were targeting pregnancy resource centers with their ad campaign, that fight that we have going on there. But we have another fight related to that, as we've investigated and spent time there and got these relationships, where there is more targeting by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts against pro-life doctors, and we're taking action.

Speaker 6:
[20:33] Right, so it involves our same client, and really the same, what you're saying, it's the same story. Massachusetts is going after these PRCs, and our lawsuit is still continuing. We're at the Federal Appeals Court. But in the meantime, after that Massachusetts had investigated our client, one of the PRCs, and absolutely cleared them, no violations, this PRC has operated for 27 years with not one complaint, so they're completely cleared. But they start going after the doctor at this clinic, and because two years ago, Massachusetts, as part of this campaign, released a press release against smearing PRCs and a guidance memo. And that guidance memo basically said, any abortion pill reversal procedure that you do, which is very, it's lawful, it's a lawful practice, but they say it's unproven, unethical and unsafe, and it subjects any doctor who's practicing it to discipline and a potential license revocation. Again, it's a lawful practice. So we filed a formal complaint with the United States Department of Health and Human Services that Massachusetts is violating three federal laws. And these laws all pertain to protecting, basically, conscious rights of medical providers who have a pro-life position. So the church amendment, any entity which receives federal funding, can't discriminate against pro-life positions. The Weldon Amendment, no money will go to state agencies that discriminate against someone for holding a pro-life position. And then the Coates Snow Amendment, which protects the conscious rights of medical providers that hold a pro-life position. So they have violated these three federal laws. We filed a complaint with HHS, and we are asking for an immediate investigation of formal finding that their actions violate these federal laws and corrective action requiring that Department of Health, the Massachusetts Department of Health, to cease its discriminatory actions, targeting the public disparagement and unequal treatment of the faith-based pro-life centers. And we're also asking for them to potentially pull their money. So we, you know, this won't just affect our client, but all, everyone in Massachusetts, all the Pregnancy Resource Centers in Massachusetts that they can practice without discrimination.

Speaker 5:
[22:57] And once again, Logan, that is why it's so important for people to join us at this time. We talk about a lot what's going on in the news, give analysis there, but our attorneys still fight in all of these cases, trying to protect those that just want to practice medicine in many cases, but are being gone after and targeted by a state because they are pro-life doctors. And when we look at this and we know that our action, we talk about that report with the DOJ, where they were targeting pro-life Christians with the, under the Biden administration because they were pro-life and they were weaponizing the FACE Act. And even under the Biden administration, when the ACLJ reaches out to a federal agency, you see things get put in motion. Now we have a more friendly administration. We're going to the HHS, filing this complaint, trying to put Massachusetts on notice and get real action here to protect doctors.

Speaker 1:
[23:54] Yeah, absolutely. And none of that happens without you here at the ACLJ. We're running short on time here, so I want to make sure that if you just are catching us for the first half hour, understand we are just a few days away from the end of our Double the Difference Drive. And look, then you'll have to hear from me for a few months until we can do another matching donation moment here. Right now, through the end of the month, which again, we are in the 20s here, we're in 2022, or 2022. We're in the 22nd of April. Right now, all donations are doubled. Make your gift go twice as far in this fight for life, the fight for liberty and freedoms. Go to aclj.org/double or scan the QR code that you see on the screen right now. Make that donation. If you can right now, know we'd really appreciate it. We got a second half hour coming up on the broadcast. If you don't get us on your local market, find us broadcasting wherever you get your podcast. YouTube, Rumble, aclj.org. And of course, later on, archived wherever you are. So even if we're not live right now when you're hearing us, catch that back half of the show at aclj.org. Or again, however you get your podcast. This is our shortest break. Stay on hold if you're on hold. Back in less than a minute.

Speaker 3:
[25:00] Keeping you informed and engaged. Now more than ever.

Speaker 2:
[25:04] This is Sekulow. And now your host, Logan Sekulow.

Speaker 1:
[25:10] Second half hour of Sekulow. It is Wednesday, April 22nd. We have a packed back half of the show, mainly because so many of you have called in. So we are going to take a lot of calls. Of course, the main topic of the day, at least for me, it may not be your number one topic on the news right now, which I think is bizarre. Yesterday evening, the White House puts out a statement saying, the ceasefire continues until, essentially indefinitely, until this very fractured government of Iran can get together a proposal and really can get together in general to have meaningful conversations with the United States of America. That's fine. What's going on over in Iran? They're seizing our ships and doing military parades of their ballistic missiles. Yeah, this is going to be a problem, everyone. And I see some of your comments saying that I'm falling for-

Speaker 5:
[26:05] I saw where you say you're giving some Democrat talking points.

Speaker 1:
[26:07] You know what?

Speaker 5:
[26:08] I disagree.

Speaker 1:
[26:09] I disagree with that as well. I don't give talking points, number one, from any political party. I call it, as I see it, look, as someone who has been a media professional, been working in this specific line of broadcasting for most of my life, I can tell you when there is PR crisis is happening. And one of them is when you have a statement put out, then you have what actually was happening in Iran, and then they had to double down and redo their statement and say, oh, we're not taking indefinites with three to five days. This shows there is some chaos happening. Let's just be honest and acknowledge it. The headline on Fox News right now is Iran Attacks Ships After Trump Extends Ceasefire. That is on Fox News. That is not a CNN talking point. That is not an MSNOW talking point. I did it right that time. I like that. Good job. This is a talking point that everyone is seeing right now, and we have to be honest brokers, okay? And I see a lot of your comments coming in, and I understand. I'm not telling you what you want to hear, and I like that sometimes. I'll be honest. I'm just gonna tell you how we actually feel. And of course, the legal ramifications of this as well. I'm not saying this war shouldn't have happened. You can go back and find that I was very much in support of this. Has the mission changed since I did that? Maybe so. I hope not. But you can go back and see that. I'm not someone saying this is any legal war and unjust war, anything like that. I am fully in support of a free, liberated Iran. By the way, the ACLJ has held that position for decades now and has worked directly in Iran. We know how it actually is because we've had people imprisoned there. We've had people that we've had to get out of jail there simply because of their religious beliefs or simply because they held some sort of connection to this country. This is no laughing matter when you're dealing with a country like Iran. And maybe we take it a little more seriously, and I have these conversations with you, but that's okay. We got some comments and questions coming in. Should we take some calls?

Speaker 5:
[28:14] Let's go for it. We are running close, so...

Speaker 1:
[28:17] Oh, we are running a little close on time. Eh, not close enough. Well, all these are very extensive.

Speaker 5:
[28:23] That's what I mean.

Speaker 1:
[28:23] There's so many words here. So many words.

Speaker 5:
[28:25] That's because it's a very thought-provoking topic.

Speaker 1:
[28:28] We did have a question. Someone said, Logan and Will, do you think it's possible that Iran is stalling and hoping the Democrats will help them out with the 60 and 90 days expires? Look, we're not sure if it's 60 and 90 days. It could be five days.

Speaker 5:
[28:39] Well, here's the other thing. They're talking about the War Powers Act. There's a lot to dissect there. One, does the ceasefire reset it as a different military action? There's a lot of loopholes when it comes to the War Powers Act, obviously, with us having both the House and the Senate right now, a resolution affirming that they can continue, I think would only need a simple majority in both houses because it wouldn't be a legislation per se. They could just affirm that this operation is okay, there's a lot they can do essentially to keep it going without them having to just, we hit the hard stop and we're pulling out.

Speaker 1:
[29:16] Yeah, and look, is that what you want? Let me know in the chat. It's a simple yes or no question. Do you want this conflict to end now? Yes, or no, you want to see the job finished. And I'm not joking, by the way, I'm not giving you one of these like questions that feels like I'm leading, misleading. I want to know, because I'm looking at the way you're talking to me right now about some of these, and I'm not sure where are people standing. You know what, I like that. Let's have some unique opinions here. You can give me a call too at 1-800-684-3110. Again, simple yes or no question. Should the US continue our involvement in Iran, or is it time to wrap this up? We'll be right back with more on Sekulow. Also, support our work. Double the difference right now. aclj.org. Be right back. Welcome back Sekulow, Phone Line is completely jammed. So we're gonna take some calls in this segment and the next segment we usually like to hold till the end, but there's so many of you calling in. Some of you have already been on hold for half an hour. Let's take some, let's go to Brian in Virginia. Brian, line two, go ahead.

Speaker 7:
[30:23] Yeah, I hope this delay is just the ruse to buy us a little bit more time this week. Usually the attacks, when we attack, starts after this, is on Friday. I hope this is, because Iran can, it can take weeks or months to even form a government or talk to that has power. You can't trust them because they're terrorists. So I think that the war should start again and we should concentrate on just securing the Strait of Hormuz to open up the oil traffic back and forth, because like I said, the European and us, everyone, like our economies are gonna not gonna last as long as Iran's will, because there is always is already a rock bottom and they'll just kill like 40,000 people if you try to protest. So we can't wait it out.

Speaker 1:
[31:09] I agree with you. I think we can't wait this out. And now we see the the White House saying, well, we're talking three to five days. We're not talking a long ceasefire here. We're not talking about this. We're trying to get back to the table very quickly. But I think you're right. I think they're responding to that. What we do know with President Trump, and there is this element of surprise, you know, to take one out of the WWE playbook, if you will, is what it feels like sometimes that we do here, which is, say, you have, you know, a minimum of 48, a maximum of 48 hours, and then you hit them in the 24-hour mark. That is not unlike President Trump. He's done it many times. I'm not saying that there isn't a chess game being played here. What I don't necessarily want is a chess game being played with, let's say, the emotions of the American people, because not only emotions of the American people, but military families who hear ceasefire and then see seized ships, who think the war could be ending and then see it extended. This is where it gets gray for me. But you're right. Negotiating good faith doesn't exist, but I feel like we're putting out the messaging as if it does.

Speaker 5:
[32:15] Well, and I think the other thing is that while I do not trust them, as the callers and our commenters say, I do not trust the Iranians, I do not trust them to make a deal in good faith, there's a couple other angles to that. One, I also don't trust them during a ceasefire. As you see, they will take out commercial vessels, I almost said vehicles, commercial vessels, but at the end of the day, that doesn't mean that our men and women in uniform are out of harm's way from a drone attack, a sneak attack that they could be trying to plan. They are the terrorists. So yes, while we may be planning something or ready to go, they are also the terrorist regime that has no real moral compass when it comes to warfare and the way that they will attack people. We've seen that. They will slaughter their own people. They do not care. I do hope that the tipping point is close for the people and those in the military there, because the IRGC is separate from the regular army. The IRGC is much more powerful, but there are more people that are in the military, the general military in Iran than are, theoretically, than the military portions of the IRGC. So could those people that have arms, could they take up arms against the country or facilitate some sort of overthrow? That's potential. Here's another angle on the negotiations as well. You may never trust Iran fully when they're like, we're gonna just say, we're gonna stop. Any sort of deal would have to be what the president has said of that we will go in and take out the uranium. We will get even the places that were bombed and take it out. We will dismantle your centrifuges so you don't have it. And then we will be monitoring, real monitoring, not what the IAEA was allowed to do under the JCPOA, Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, Obama nuclear deal. Those are the types of things that, you don't have to trust them because you're the one taking it. You're the one dismantling their centrifuges. We've already taken out 50 years almost of their military infrastructure in Iran. That's going to take a long time to build back. Even if you know their goal is to get back to it, if you take all their equipment and destroy it all, that's going to take decades to get back to a point where they can make it.

Speaker 1:
[34:43] We have a call that's kind of related to that. Let's go to Lewis in Massachusetts on line one. Lewis, go ahead.

Speaker 3:
[34:49] Hi, guys. Logan, thank you for allowing me to be on. First of all, I really believe that the goals of this war were made clear a long time ago and you haven't wavered if you're listening to the press and press conferences. And that's simply the absolute certainty that Iran will not have nuclear weapons. Second, that their ability to deliver harm with missiles, with long range missiles is severely limited or knocked out entirely. And last, it's time to stop the baloney with them funding these proxies that are just holding a knife to everybody's throat all over the Middle East and really the larger world. So I think that if we think about what's being said and we remember what's being said as a public, as a public with some guts and some determination, you know, I think we'll see that we have clear goals. Now, if the government has to be overturned in order to achieve those, I don't think that that's not on the table as well.

Speaker 1:
[35:55] Yeah, I look at it and go, what's the inciting incident here? You know, to use a writer's term, I guess, if you would. And one of those inciting incidents, or one of the major ones, was President Trump saying that we're behind the people of Iran. So while you're right, maybe one of the explicit goals was not ever stated to be regime change or whatever you may want to call it. What brought us to this moment beyond the existential threats that were happening, and of course what was happening in Israel, was people being slaughtered in the streets, the Iranian people, and America saying we're behind you. And then you take out the Ayatollah, and you take out some of the top leadership immediately. If that happens, I feel like the goal is regime change. I feel like the goal is the liberation of the people. You could be right in the fact that maybe that was never stated explicitly as one of the goals, but if you ever thought that you'd be coming to a negotiation table with Iran, I don't know if the first thing you would have done is taken out their top leadership. And when it comes to taking out their missile systems and the creation of uranium and all the different things that could cause nuclear war, yes, some of those goals were certainly hit, we believe. But it feels like they are able to flip that narrative always. So again, when there's a ceasefire, there's a cease of ships. When there is a, you know, what seems like a call to calm, there is a parade of missiles, a literal parade, a military parade. Now, maybe not your long form, you know, whatever may be.

Speaker 5:
[37:42] I mean, it is unclear whether or not those are shells.

Speaker 1:
[37:45] It could be, this is a show, it's all propaganda.

Speaker 5:
[37:47] Right, and because it's propaganda. And we know that even senators have fallen prey to propaganda where they said that Iran snuck through 26 ships and you saw Chris Murphy say, awesome. And then he tried to say, I was being sarcastic. We talked about this yesterday. One, here's the difference too. We definitely see positives from what has taken place so far. We are at a turning point in this conflict where it does seem messier than, and the way it's being told to the public, Messaging. Messier than it needs to be.

Speaker 1:
[38:25] Messy messaging. I mean, that's what it feels like.

Speaker 5:
[38:26] You either, and I think, need to finish the job, and by finish the job, ensure that the leadership can never get a nuclear weapon because there is no longer an Islamic Republic of Iran, it becomes something new, a true regime change, or you say, we've done so much to cripple them, we have taken out their military infrastructure, we're good here.

Speaker 1:
[38:52] Yeah. President Trump, if you want to have a unique ending to this war, win the war. I mean, we have not had a truly a definitive win of a war. I would say that there was a clear ending to, we did the job we were supposed to do, we came in, we cleaned up, we got out of there, in a very, very long time. There are, now of course, there's always, you know, you're making sure there's protections there and that there are military engaged all over the world, as there still are in Germany, as there still are throughout the world. I'm not saying that can't happen, but maybe that was the last time when there was a clear cut definitive one. Let's see what could happen. Next segment of the show, I've got six lines and they're all full right now. And you all have a lot to say, and I want to give you the opportunity to say it, because unlike a lot of shows that you watch, unlike a lot of the podcasts you listen to, we give an opportunity for opinions, for counter opinions, and have conversations here. And I always love that about this show. But the messaging and the work continues. And though today's show has highly been on our commentary, which I understand is not always what we do here. We also discussed the legal work of the ACLJ, our fight for life that's still happening right now. Fight for those pro-life centers that are constantly under attack. And I understand that's a bit of a pivot. But the work continues on. So I want you right now to go to the aclj.org, to our website, or maybe you're gonna go to the ACLJ app. And I want you to make a donation. I want you to scan the QR code if you see it right now. Because all donations right now, if you make your gift, it goes twice as far in that fight. Go to aclj.org, go to aclj.org/double, and have your tax deduction, deductible donation double. That's a lot of tax deductible donation doubled today. At aclj.org. Do it right now. We get back all your calls and comments coming up. Stay on hold if you're on hold. We made it here, folks. It's Wednesday. We're gonna wrap up this show in a not a better way because it's my favorite part of the show. As you know, it's a little bit of a game of chance here. You never know what you're gonna get.

Speaker 5:
[41:12] Always.

Speaker 1:
[41:13] We've been surprised before. Hopefully, you're all kind to the phone screener. Hopefully, you're all honest with the phone screener. You never know. We got six calls, we got eight minutes. I don't know if we're gonna get to everybody.

Speaker 5:
[41:22] Let's try to do it.

Speaker 1:
[41:23] But we're gonna try, we'll at least get to the ones that about hold over 15 minutes. They deserve it. This is about actually Virginia, and I think we can do a quick pivot before we get back, because everything else is about Iran. Jeff, Virginia, watching on the Salem News Channel. You're on the air.

Speaker 3:
[41:38] Okay, thank you so much for listening to me. I just had a quick one. I want to know if the ACLJ will be involved in some of the appeals of this referendum, any possibility of this thing being addressed before the upcoming election, because if not, Trump could end up being impeached every single day if we end up with a Democrat majority. So I want to know what you can do. My district is going to be divided up six different ways according to this referendum.

Speaker 1:
[42:09] It's wild, Jeff. And look, it really is unfortunate that your constituents and your people in Virginia, the population, voted for this. And they did vote for it. And it did pass overwhelmingly, which is unfortunate. Now it comes to the legal side of it. I'm sure our ACLJ team is on it and looking.

Speaker 5:
[42:28] We talked about this yesterday. We talked about how the language is even confusing in the way that it's written. Sometimes that's where you get it when you challenge it in court. I can confirm that our legal team is looking into ways that we can be involved. Obviously, to sue, you normally need a client, things of that nature. But even if we don't have that person to be filing amicus, there's different ways to get involved and our legal team is on that. And I just want to give the comfort to everyone of what the former president, Barack Obama, said after the referendum last night. Congratulations, Virginia. Republicans are trying to tilt the midterm elections in their favor, but they haven't done it yet. Thanks for showing us what it looks like to stand up for our democracy and fight back by completely rigging a map so that you have no chance of actual representation in your state. Good job, Mr. Protector of Democracy.

Speaker 1:
[43:22] What I hate about modern politics is this idea of, well, you did it, so we're going to do it. I did it, you did it. And look, I understand it happens on both sides here. But the idea of you have to hold your nose and do this for the betterment of democracy, where I fully disagree with the actual process of what's happening, but we need to do it because it hurts the other side so much. To me, this is an un-American thing. You can disagree with what Texas did, and then also vote no in Virginia. That should be the case. But because it sides with your political point of view, unfairly even, you can justify it morally or some sort of way. I really dislike that part of politics. Unfortunately, it is where we are in society. Let's move back to Iran. So many of you are calling in about that. Let's keep going. Jack, also on Salem News Channel, line 5, go ahead.

Speaker 4:
[44:16] Yeah, my big fear is that the Iranians are trying to run out the clock on the War Powers Act. The bottom line is that we must totally destroy that regime. We must destroy the IRGC. We must destroy the theocratic system. And we can't operate this whole process based on emotion and sentimentality. There are going to be problems for the people living in Iran. We've got to destroy this regime's ability to function, period.

Speaker 1:
[44:56] And you think we'd be there by now, to be honest. I mean, it felt like we were going, day one, taking out the Ayatollah and most of his friends, that we were headed that way. Now, in terms of the War Powers Act question, we addressed this a little bit earlier, which is, you know, with the American government, where there's a will, there's a way.

Speaker 5:
[45:11] Well, here's the thing, we're at 53-ish days in, you know, normally by, you hit 60, then you're supposed to start the withdrawal, so you can go to 90, but we also know there's been a ceasefire. Does that reset the clock? There's a lot of mechanisms that can happen, as well as the majority is the Republicans, if they need requirements, even just a resolution, say we extend this, we do a reset, or we acknowledge the ceasefire, there's a lot of ways around that. It would be a lot harder if the Democrats did have the majority right now, but I think with the majority, and with Republicans in Congress, you're probably gonna see this go at least longer than the 60 days without a start of a drawdown.

Speaker 1:
[45:57] Yeah, let's continue on. Thanks, Jack. Ray's calling, Pennsylvania online six. Ray, go ahead. Oh, hold on, Ray. Now go ahead.

Speaker 3:
[46:03] I just want to say, I believe that Iran is just making the US look weak and foolish, and they are just playing with us right now. I think it's time we just go in, finish the job, take their oil to a final point by being strong and putting an end to this now.

Speaker 1:
[46:21] Yeah, as I said, Ray, win the war. I think that that is something that a lot of our audience is clearly behind. I don't know if it's making us look weak and foolish. I don't think they're playing us as much as we are failing in messaging, and I think that could be easily addressed.

Speaker 5:
[46:36] And I agree with that before we get to another call, just to say that what was so refreshing is how strong the United States looked at the beginning of this, how clear-eyed, how quickly we were taking out targets, and now this is where the waters are getting muddied with the messaging, as Logan said, that it's not, I don't think it's making us look foolish to that point, but it does make us look a little bit less centralized in our goal.

Speaker 1:
[47:00] Yeah, exactly, let's calculate it. Let's move over to Bill in Wyoming. Bill, go ahead.

Speaker 7:
[47:06] Yeah, thanks for taking my call. I'm frustrated, because America is the only one that's taken care of this, caring about this, and I hope my question is stated right. To coin from a commentator, it seems like the EU believes that it's a love nature for America to take care of all the world's problems, and they're doing nothing. It seems if they got in and helped us out, this would go a little bit quicker.

Speaker 5:
[47:35] Well, it's really shown the difference between Eastern Europe and Western Europe when it comes to our NATO allies. That's for sure, Bill. We also know that many of them have not been cozy to Iran, but not been as worried about Iran, when meanwhile we saw that Iran had missiles that could hit London. We were told they didn't have those by Democrat presidents as recently as a little over a year ago. So yeah, I think that it tells a lot about our allies, those that would stand with us and those that won't.

Speaker 1:
[48:10] All right, we only got a minute left. Let's go to Mike, finish this set of calls. It's been great calls today, Mike. Go ahead, watching also on Salem News Channel.

Speaker 7:
[48:21] Yeah, this is Mike, and thank you for taking my call. I definitely think we need to finish the job. Like has already been said, we get off to a great start, but we need to go in and cut off the head of the snake. As long as that IRCG is in there, or IRGC is in there leading, whatever we do, they will eventually rebuild. And so we need to go in there and just once and for all, take them out.

Speaker 1:
[48:51] Yeah, Mike, we don't want to see in 20 years, this become the Afghanistan withdrawal once again. So I agree with you on that, that this regime, as much as President Trump will say, that the regime is already gone, it's new people, so it's a new regime. Yeah, I understand you reframing it that way, but really what we're talking about is freeing a people who have been under the thumb of extreme, extreme chaos, torture, death for 50 years, 60 years. This is where we're at. Great calls today. I hope you enjoyed this show. Again, we don't always tell you exactly what you want to hear. Hopefully, that's why you listen. Tell your friends about it. Support the work if you can. We'll hit more about the legal work of the ACLJ tomorrow, but I wanted to give you this update. aclj.org right now. Double your impact through the double, the difference drive. Your donations are doubled. Make your gift go twice as far right now at aclj.org. Scan that QR code you see on the screen, and we'll be back tomorrow, 12 to 1 p.m. Eastern Time Live, and of course, archive to wherever you get your podcast at aclj.org.