Sekulow

Logan Sekulow: Welcome to Sekulow. Phone lines are open for you. It is Monday, July 20th. Welcome to the show. Will Haynes is joining me in studio. We've got a packed show today. Mike Pompeo is joining us, followed by Marsha Blackburn. She is a Senator from Tennessee who is running for governor. It is going to be a packed show, so you're not going to want to miss it. But also, I'm going to be taking your phone calls at 1-800-684-3110. We are covering the breaking news out of New York City this morning as an explosive device was found and was detonated outside of a federal building in Manhattan this morning. A few people are injured. We don't know a lot of information yet, other than a man was taken into custody after police say he set a fire, ignited what they said were maybe fireworks, waved a gun outside of a federal building, and again, an explosive device that we're not exactly sure all the details yet. At the same time, you have Zohran Mamdani making a lot of news over the weekend, still calling for the arrest of Benjamin Netanyahu as he plans to visit New York City in the coming weeks. Let's actually hear directly from the Mayor of New York.
Zohran Mamdani: I believe that Mr. Netanyahu belongs in the Hague. He's a war criminal who has been charged by the International Criminal Court. Whatever the law allows me to do in New York City, that's what we will do, but we won't be writing our own laws to that end. That's an active conversation with our legal department in seeing what the prospects are we have here in our municipality.
Logan Sekulow: We are dealing with some technical issues on YouTube. I don't know if you can hear me or not. Even if you're hearing a rattled version, know that we are working on adjusting that right now. Phone lines are open for you if you are listening at 1-800-684-3110. Right now, the FBI in New York is actually talking about this and who the person is in custody. We'll pull that. We'll find out more information. Again, you have a time where New York is under a very interesting period. Of course, you hear about a failing New York a lot. I have been one of those proponents of a New York City being thriving. I want it to be the center of the world. I want it to be where people come to visit and they feel safe. At the same time, you have a lot of crime happening. You had the World Cup happening there just yesterday. It was coming off of what felt like a very peaceful time. The President of the United States was there. It was a big moment for New York City. It felt safe. Everything was secure. I was at the World Cup in Atlanta a few days before. But at the same time, here we are dealing with some sort of incendiary device that was set outside of a federal building in New York City just a few hours ago. And what are we spending our time on? The Mayor of New York City talking about arresting the Prime Minister of Israel.
Will Haynes: That's right. Remember, this is not the first time that an incendiary device was set off. Remember, even while you were in New York, Logan, outside of Gracie Mansion, there were Molotov cocktails. That was an incendiary device that fortunately did not go off, but it was a bomb there. This is now in front of the FBI building. This is also where the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ICE, has offices, as well as an immigration court in New York City. So if we are reading into that, it could be because it's a target against the policies of the United States. Once again, we will hopefully find out more information soon and bring it to you. But the target itself being a place where the federal government has offices in New York City—the FBI, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency—we feel like this leads you to believe this is an attack against the policies of the administration. At the same time, this is what's going on in New York these days.
Logan Sekulow: There's a lot of conversation about why could they arrest Prime Minister Netanyahu and what are the charges. We'll talk about that when we get back. We'll reset all of what we talked about over the last couple minutes when we get back from our break. We are today launching Defend the Defenseless week here at the ACLJ. This is about our pro-life work. We are in a moment here when the vulnerable and the unborn come under attack, and we feel like we are one of the few organizations that will actually step into this fight. We cannot do it without your generosity and support. This week, any gift you make will be doubled to defend life. Go to ACLJ.org/defend and double your impact. We're going to talk a lot about the work the ACLJ is doing, including right now. Tomorrow in Massachusetts, the abortion industry must respond in federal appeals court to our lawsuit defending pro-life pregnancy centers. This week, there's a deadline in our suit against Ohio city that criminally charged pro-life activists. We're going to keep discussing this at more and more length, but right now, you know our work. Support it today at ACLJ.org. We'll be right back.
Guest (Male): We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Those are the words of our forefathers written in the Declaration of Independence. They are the cornerstone on which our constitutional republic was built. Over the past 250 years, we have formed a great nation, a nation the world has looked to for guidance, for support, and for protection. This month, we celebrate our liberty, but that liberty is fragile and requires every American to defend it. That's why this month, we've launched the ACLJ Liberty Drive. In honor of America's birthday, we're redoubling our commitment to continue fighting against any attacks that would strip us of that freedom. We owe it to our forefathers. You can join the fight right now through our ACLJ Liberty Drive. Go to ACLJ.org/liberty today and have your tax-deductible gift doubled, dollar for dollar, to enable the ACLJ to fight to defend our God-given liberty.
Guest (Male): We've witnessed monumental legal victories, from defending the 14th Amendment and protecting our sacred American right to vote, to the overturning of Roe v. Wade, and standing up for the religious liberty of our kids and seniors. But even with the many historic wins we've achieved, the battle is far from over. The attacks on our constitutionally protected rights persist. Countless unborn babies remain in jeopardy, and across the globe, innocent Christians are being targeted and killed. Across this country and around the world, this fight isn't just the ACLJ's. It's all of ours. It belongs to every American who wants to preserve the values and beliefs on which this nation was founded. None of the victories we've won would have been possible without the unwavering support of ACLJ members and ACLJ champions. It's been an honor to fight for you all these years. Join us in fighting for freedom. Have your donation doubled at ACLJ.org/freedom.
Logan Sekulow: Thanks for joining us today. Welcome back to Sekulow. I know we had some sound difficulties, but I believe that's been fixed. So I'm going to reset what we were talking about. There are kind of two separate incidents that are happening. All, of course, have to do with New York City. As it seems like all eyes seem to be on New York, yesterday you had the World Cup finals in New York, and now you have this morning an incendiary device, a bomb, some sort of explosive device that was detonated outside of a federal building in Manhattan. This happened, they said it could have been some sort of fireworks, but a couple people are injured. An individual has been taken into custody and we are going to hear probably from the FBI here shortly. How did New York City decide to make news this weekend? Not only by having what I think was probably the most successful sporting event in a long, long time with the World Cup throughout the entire United States, Mexico, and Canada, which was a fantastic thing for everybody, you add Mayor Mamdani making the rounds telling people he still plans on trying to figure out any effort they can to arrest Benjamin Netanyahu. We have a phone call about that, and I think we can use this as a setup for what people may have curiosity questions. Let's go to Robert in Maryland, ACLJ champion, long-time caller. Go ahead, Robert.
Robert: I wanted to ask the question: Does the Mayor of New York City actually want to arrest Benjamin Netanyahu? If he does, what charge would he be arresting him on? Would he be using the ICC, the International Criminal Court, as the medium to arrest the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu?
Logan Sekulow: Let's talk about would he want to. I think the answer is yes, 100%. Will he be able to? Probably not. This is someone who is saying we're an international city and we're able to use international law. I don't think the Mayor of New York has the ability to do such a thing. I know you had Senator Fetterman saying that this is ridiculous and he's not even going to try it, and to quit asking him. This is just a goof and he needs to focus on his city. Clearly, he needs to focus on his city when a bomb just went off this morning. But over the weekend, he spent his time talking about arresting Benjamin Netanyahu. Of course, we know he's no friend to Israel. Of course, we know he's no friend to the Netanyahu administration, but he has ramped it up. It's not like he's backed down from those. Sure, he was questioned about this as Netanyahu gets closer and closer to a visit to New York.
Will Haynes: Well, we also know that this was something he ran on. He ran as a part of his campaign saying, "I will do everything within my power to see that he is held accountable for his crimes." As if that is the job of the Mayor of New York. But when you look at what the DSA, the Democratic Socialists of America, as an offshoot in American politics, has really positioned as their number one issue, it is what they say is "Free Palestine," but really it's "destroy Israel." So it makes sense that their poster boy is going making these rounds still trying to push for something that is not within his legal authority. Now, he clearly has the general counsel of the Mayor's office digging into these and his legal advisors digging into these issues to see whether or not this is something they can pull off. But Robert, to your point, it wouldn't be an arrest on any charges he's violated in New York within New York municipal code. It would be at the behest of a foreign court system, the ICC, of which the United States is not a party to. We have not signed on to the Rome Statute. We have actually at the ACLJ fought at the ICC against them trying to expand their jurisdiction over the United States and Israel, or citizens of those countries. It is alarming, though, when you have a very powerful person—I don't want to downplay the fact that he is the Mayor of the largest city in the country, as well as one of the most important cities in the world—when he goes out and tries to say these things at the same time as this is what he posted on X about the incendiary device this morning: "What occurred outside 26 Federal Plaza this morning was deeply disturbing. I'm relieved no one was seriously injured and that a suspect is in custody. My team is in touch with the NYPD and we will support the federal investigation. Our administration will continue to ensure that every New Yorker is safe in their city and hold accountable any who threaten that." Now, that's a very benign statement when it comes to something that happened in your city when you've seen now multiple terrorist things happen in your city under your tenure. At the same time, this is the conversation. You can tell where his priority really is. This is with the New York Times over the weekend. Let's play bite two.
Lulu Garcia-Navarro: Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is perhaps planning to visit New York for the UN General Assembly. You pledged during your campaign and after you won to order his arrest to comply with an International Criminal Court warrant. What will happen if he comes in September?
Zohran Mamdani: I believe that Prime Minister Netanyahu belongs in the Hague. He's a war criminal who has been charged by the International Criminal Court. What you will find is that is an opinion that is held by many purely because of what his actions have wrought over these last many years. I've also said that I will follow the laws that we have here in New York City because I believe that there is an importance in following the law as a leader who presides over our city, and that's something that I plan to do.
Logan Sekulow: And once again, this is with the New York Times. The interview is a show that is released as a podcast and in a video format. You have the host, Lulu Garcia-Navarro, who I think actually does a really good job as a journalist pushing back on individuals that come on and make statements like that, like "I believe he belongs in the Hague." Here's her follow-up. This is bite three, after he says, "As someone that's a leader and presides over the city, it's something I plan on doing is following the law."
Lulu Garcia-Navarro: I'm sorry, I don't understand what that means.
Zohran Mamdani: Meaning that whatever the law allows me to do in New York City, that's what we will do, but we won't be writing our own laws to that end.
Lulu Garcia-Navarro: What does the law allow you to do?
Zohran Mamdani: That's an active conversation with our legal department in seeing what the prospects are we have here in our municipality. However, what we've seen at the national level is a desire sometimes to write your own laws to go outside of the bounds of legality. That's not something we have an interest in.
Lulu Garcia-Navarro: Normally when people come to a UN General Assembly, they're granted a sort of amnesty because it is the seat of the United Nations. Is that what you're thinking that you'll honor, or you're actively looking to see if you can actually arrest him?
Zohran Mamdani: I think we are looking at all of our legal obligations and one of them is with regards to the United Nations. But the other part of this is we're not talking about a personal assessment of Benjamin Netanyahu. We're talking about the International Criminal Court and the fact that they have a warrant out for this Prime Minister's arrest. I think it's important to talk about the weight that that has as a charge, and also that as the Mayor of New York City, I'll be following the laws of New York City.
Logan Sekulow: Certainly he is cagey in his response, but was able to say, "Look, definitively this is what I want to do," but at least kind of openly admitting it without ever saying it that he can't do anything about this. Look, the fact that you would ever want in the United States of America, by the way, for us to be even acknowledging the International Criminal Court in this sense is pretty disturbing, pretty scary. If you want to start talking about your one-world government kind of conspiracy theories, it's not a conspiracy theory when it comes to the International Criminal Court. It feels dystopian. It's very strange. My dad's argued there because it is important to make sure that people are being defended, because so many people do find some sort of legality and validation in this incredibly creepy board that sits.
Will Haynes: Here's my concern because we've been very successful at fighting back against the ICC wanting to encroach on American sovereignty and Israeli sovereignty. When I hear this, when she says, "Is it something you're actively looking to see if you can actually arrest him?" That's what the interviewer is asking. He says, "I think we are looking at all of our legal obligations, and one of them is with regards to the United Nations. But the other part of this is we're not talking about a personal assessment. We're talking about the ICC and the fact they have a warrant out for his arrest." So my concern is you have to realize the legal advisors—all this, this is his team. A lot of times legal advisors get you to the opinion you want. If he is saying, "We're looking at what our legal obligations are," and he has advisors that are predisposed to think that the ICC's jurisdiction is something that should supersede right then, you get a legal opinion out of the general counsel of the Mayor's office in New York that says you are legally obligated to do some sort of action because the ICC has an arrest warrant out for an alleged war criminal. That's the scary thing because he's wanting to get there. He's definitely tasked his advisors with, "Get me there if we can." My concern is when you have someone that is a part of this DSA type regime and all of the things we've seen. We see the DSA wants to tear down the Senate. They want to abolish the Senate. They want to pack the courts. They want to do all these things that their mindset isn't "let's follow the Constitution." They're wanting to disrupt the Constitution. I'm concerned his legal advisors are going to say, "Your legal obligation is to arrest this Prime Minister." That's a dangerous spot and that's going to put a big conflict between the federal government and the municipality government.
Logan Sekulow: I want to hear from you. What do you think about this? At the same time, we are looking for updates. They are continually to roll in about that bomb that was detonated. Small, hopefully no real serious injuries, but was in front of a federal building in New York City just this morning. There are some updates that are going to come in. We're going to have Secretary Mike Pompeo joining us in the next segment. And then the back half hour, we're going to be joined in studio by Senator and currently running for Governor of Tennessee, Marsha Blackburn. You're not going to want to miss that. That is going to be a great segment. Don't go anywhere. Be joining us for that. Phone lines are open for you, though, and I do want to hear from you. Go ahead and get in line because I'm going to take calls coming up after Secretary Pompeo and after Senator Blackburn. So make sure you get in line right now. 1-800-684-3110. At the same time, we haven't spent a lot of time on it today. We are going to continue to show you our current updates and current work on our fight for life as it continues on. It's the Defend the Defenseless week. I want you to give me a thought, a prayer for these people who support pro-life worldview all over the globe. Go to ACLJ.org today.
Guest (Male): We've witnessed monumental legal victories from defending the 14th Amendment and protecting our sacred American right to vote, the overturning of Roe v. Wade, and standing up for the religious liberty of our kids and seniors. But even with the many historic wins we've achieved, the battle is far from over. The attacks on our constitutionally protected rights persist. Countless unborn babies remain in jeopardy, and across the globe, innocent Christians are being targeted and killed across this country and around the world. This fight isn't just the ACLJ's. It's all of ours. It belongs to every American who wants to preserve the values and beliefs on which this nation was founded. None of the victories we've won would have been possible without the unwavering support of ACLJ members and ACLJ champions. It's been an honor to fight for you all these years. Join us in fighting for freedom. Have your donation doubled at ACLJ.org/freedom.
Guest (Male): We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Those are the words of our forefathers written in the Declaration of Independence. They are the cornerstone on which our constitutional republic was built. Over the past 250 years, we have formed a great nation, a nation the world has looked to for guidance, for support, and for protection. This month, we celebrate our liberty, but that liberty is fragile and requires every American to defend it. That's why this month, we've launched the ACLJ Liberty Drive. In honor of America's birthday, we're redoubling our commitment to continue fighting against any attacks that would strip us of that freedom. We owe it to our forefathers. You can join the fight right now through our ACLJ Liberty Drive. Go to ACLJ.org/liberty today and have your tax-deductible gift doubled, dollar for dollar, to enable the ACLJ to fight to defend our God-given liberty.
Logan Sekulow: Phone lines are open for you at 1-800-684-3110. I said it's time to get in line. This would be a good time to do it. I'm going to take calls in the next segment, and then I'm going to take calls in the last segment. So be a part of the show right now. Secretary Pompeo is joining us. Of course, we are talking about what's going on in New York City. There was some sort of explosive device. Looks like no real injuries or serious injuries have been reported just yet, Secretary Pompeo. But we know New York, obviously a lot of eyes are on New York and we see Mayor Mamdani making headlines again for floating the idea of arresting Prime Minister Netanyahu when he comes and visits New York in September for the UN. Now, we believe he probably has no legal authority to actually do this, but he starts looking at things like respecting the International Criminal Court and so on and making these statements pretty clear. So what's the plan here?
Mike Pompeo: Oh goodness, great to be with you. Look, I think this is just some guy literally blowing smoke trying to make noise to his political domestic base. He's no more going to arrest a Prime Minister or a president or a leader of another country who comes into New York than a man in the moon. It's simply not going to happen. Not only is it unlawful as a practical matter, who's going to pull that off? No policeman's actually going to say, "Yeah, I'm going to go take on their security forces," that are going to be largely federal protection when foreign diplomats travel, when foreign leaders travel. They're protected by the United States Department of State. So that just seems, as a practical matter, unlikely. But more importantly, what he's actually doing is he's signaling to his DSA base. He's signaling to the anti-Semitic community that he is with them. And he is signaling that he has identified this one leader, the leader of the only Jewish state, the rightful homeland of the Jewish people. He hasn't talked about going after the president or the Prime Minister of Iran. He hasn't talked about going after Vladimir Putin, who's taken thousands of kids out of Ukraine and squirreled them back inside Russia. No, he's talking about going after the leader of the nation of Israel. I think that's what this is really all about.
Logan Sekulow: Well, and you even mention Iran as we saw over the weekend. What unfortunately, we had tragedy, we lost some service members that were defending our nation in performing their duty as members of our armed services. But I think this goes back to even the unseriousness of what the Mayor is talking about when such serious things are going on in the world. It was obviously, we've seen a lot of people try to now come out, and there's articles in Wall Street Journal being written saying it was an Israeli campaign against the MOU, when in reality what we saw is that the Iranians couldn't live up to even the most basic, simple Memorandum of Understanding, not even a deal. They couldn't not fire at shipping vessels. And what happens? They violate the MOU, and now there has been more activity both from the United States in striking back against the Iranians, but also this situation where we had loss of American life. As we're here, it's not surprising that we are back where we are. But I think just a reiterating of why it is so important to be fighting this regime at this time, as things seem to be escalating as they did over the weekend.
Mike Pompeo: You make a really good point. The storyline from the left has been that this was a war of choice. And frankly, some on the right too, that this was a war of choice. What you can plainly see now is that this war was chosen by the Islamic Republic in 1979 and they've been at war with the United States since then. These tragic loss of lives over these past few days, add to them the dozen folks or so that were killed in the previous fights, are on top of thousands of Americans that have been killed by the Iranians over the past decades. And so this is something that the United States is going to have to make sure we get right. I've talked about this as finishing the job. We need to continue the economic blockade. We need to reopen the strait. And then we need to use every capacity to get our friends and allies in the world to understand that this Islamic threat from the regime, from the IRGC, is real. It's serious. And they're not just coming after Israel. They're coming after Europe. They're coming after the United States. And so for the American people to get this right, to keep a nuclear weapon out of the hands of this regime is an absolute security imperative.
Logan Sekulow: One of the things that also came along with the strikes that we saw was really a flood of new news out of and reporting out of the Middle East. We saw reports that the Ayatollah may not even be in Iran anymore. He may have fled. That a lot of the reporting is that statements are just the IRGC, which is not unexpected at this point, especially when he has not even been seen in public. But a lot of also other interesting reports—obviously you can never really weigh the credibility of stuff that's being reported out of Iran—but things that Iran may be looking at a preemptive march on Kuwait to try and attack the US bases there, which I hope that they've read history of what that could end up looking like for them. But all of these things, you mentioned finished the job. It does look more and more inevitable that there will be another layer to this conflict in order to finish that job. What are some sorts of the scenarios that you could envision playing out in these next few months as finishing the job appears to be what needs to happen from the United States?
Mike Pompeo: So Iran does still have some capacity to escalate. We've seen that. They now successfully fired missiles into Jordan, although we stopped most of them. They've gone after Bahrain, Kuwait. We should all be mindful. These are their Muslim brothers that they're killing. And so Muslim nations around the world should be outraged that the Iranians are killing their fellow Muslims. This isn't about killing the Jews and the Christians. They are now attacking Muslim nations. Second, their tools are now more limited, but not zero. They still have capacity in Lebanon with Hezbollah. Today, the Houthis announced that they were going to close the Strait of Bab el-Mandeb, at least to Saudi traffic. Not sure they're capable of doing that, but they will continue to use every tool in their toolkit until we get to what President Trump talked about at the very beginning: surrender, capitulation. The Iranian regime understands one thing, that's power. We should negotiate with them, that seems fine. But we should never stop doing the things that degrade their capacity to inflict terror. And so that was the mistake of the MOU. Signing the MOU was fine, but we should have never let off the economic stranglehold that we had on them. They rearmed. They got some money. That makes it more difficult and puts more Americans at risk. We should stay at this until it's the case that the Iranian regime understands that their continued survival depends on giving up nuclear weapons, not closing the strait, and stop using their ballistic missiles and terror proxies. We can achieve that. I'm very confident of that. We just need to know that President Trump needs to be given the space and the capacity to do it because it will take some time.
Logan Sekulow: Yeah, it will take some time, and we have to have the appetite for it and the media needs to understand that as well. Like you said, the conservative media and the liberal media needs to understand who we're actually dealing with here. Thank you, Secretary Pompeo, for joining us today. Look, we'll be back in just a minute here. I want you, though, if you are thinking about calling in, this is a great time to call in. Phone lines are open. We got three lines open at 1-800-684-3110. Because we have Marsha Blackburn joining us in studio a little bit later, I have a little bit limited time to take some calls. So I'm going to take some calls in the next segment, and then I'm going to take calls towards the end of the show. So I need you to call in now to get online. 1-800-684-3110. This is the time to do it. And of course, we are kicking off our Defend the Defenseless week here. Again, this is our pro-life activist week. If you are one of those people who fights for life, whether you just are praying for people, whether you want to support people who are outside of abortion clinics who are there, whether it's peacefully protesting or whatever it may be, or the campaigns or fighting against the smear campaigns of pro-life pregnancy centers, the ACLJ is involved on the front lines of all of these issues. But none of it happens without you. So we have dedicated this week again to our fight for life. It's the Defend the Defenseless week. You can scan the QR code you see on the screen right now or just go to ACLJ.org/defend. Do it today and your donations are doubled. We are fortunate to have people like you because we want to be able to provide this legal defense and our media side of this for absolutely no cost. Whether that's in Capitol Hill or in local communities, help us not only save the unborn but protect those who fight for them. Take action with us. Go to ACLJ.org/defend. And once again, phone lines are open for you. If you just opened up, take some calls coming up. 1-800-684-3110. Do it right now. That's 1-800-684-3110. Call us right now. We'll get you on the air. We actually just had a line open up. So again, 1-800-684-3110. And we have the latest updates on that device and attack in New York when we get back from this break. So stick around. We'll be right back with more.
Guest (Male): Over the past 250 years, we have formed a great nation, a nation the world has looked to for guidance, for support, and for protection. This month, we celebrate our liberty, but that liberty is fragile and requires every American to defend it. That's why this month, we've launched the ACLJ Liberty Drive. In honor of America's birthday, we're redoubling our commitment to continue fighting against any attacks that would strip us of that freedom. We owe it to our forefathers. You can join the fight right now through our ACLJ Liberty Drive. Go to ACLJ.org/liberty today and have your tax-deductible gift doubled, dollar for dollar, to enable the ACLJ to fight to defend our God-given liberty.