SEKULOW

Guest (Male): On today's show, we've got more updates on the two terror attacks from yesterday. Keeping you informed and engaged now more than ever, this is Sekulow. We want to hear from you. Share and post your comments or call 1-800-684-3110. And now your host, Logan Sekulow.

Logan Sekulow: Welcome to Sekulow. It is a Friday. Phone lines are open for you at 1-800-684-3110. Going off the air yesterday, just shortly after we went off the air, the first of the two terrorist attacks that happened yesterday. One was completely thwarted. One sadly had a loss of life.

Let's talk about those so you have an understanding of what we're talking about. Of course, a lot of you may have heard of the potential attack in Michigan where a car was driven into a large synagogue. You could almost consider this to be like a mega church of a synagogue. It had 10,000 plus members. Really big reform synagogue, reaching a lot of young people, and drove in with weaponry and a school. With weaponry and explosive devices.

Thankfully, and you can say that, there was a very well-trained team, security teams, not unlike what happened at Lakewood Church last year, who were able to neutralize that threat pretty quickly.

Will Haun: That's right, Logan. And as we heard from the governor of Michigan, Gretchen Whitmer, this morning, if this attack had been successful in Michigan, it would have been the likes of a Sandy Hook type situation.

It was young children, a very heavily armed with explosives attacker. It would have been extremely devastating not just for that community but for the entire country. The second one also happened at Old Dominion University. This was an individual that went into specifically an ROTC classroom and confirmed with a student there. He said, "Is this one of the ROTC classes?" They said, "Yes."

And then he began to open fire, killing the professor who is a decorated military veteran, Lieutenant Colonel, had served in multiple campaigns in Iraq, and was killed by someone whom had previously been convicted of terrorism.

Logan Sekulow: Yeah, let's slow this one down. Because look, where the other one was taken care of and we're very thankful for that. Look, university professors and teachers in general, we know are under a big threat right now. I taught last year and I'll be honest that it rarely left my mind that the security can't really be high enough.

I mean, a great security team, but you're talking about individual classrooms. You know the size of these schools. Doors are left open. There's a lot going on to get in and out of these rooms. A lot of times it sounds bad, but you become, you start feeling as a professor or you start feeling as even the students that you're just like a sitting duck in this moment and what do you do in these situations. So I feel so bad for these, obviously for the teacher who lost his life and for the students who have to deal with this.

But this was one of those attackers that didn't have to happen. This is someone we had apprehended. We knew the issues. They had already been working with terrorist regimes. This, again, is a moment where we have to start reevaluating how our prison system works even.

Will Haun: That's right. This individual had previously been convicted of support of ISIS, wanting to carry out an ISIS attack here in the United States, had purchased a rifle back in the time to carry out an attack.

But went to prison, was convicted in 2017 or late 2016, sentenced in 2017. The government, the Justice Department under the Trump administration at the time, was wanting 20 years. The judge in this case cut that almost in half, gave the individual an 11-year sentence plus time served for being in jail during the trial.

And then he was released almost two years early from that sentence. And that was December of 2024. And just over a year later, that individual carried out what they had wanted to do all along.

Logan Sekulow: Yeah, but this was a person who was killed by another student, actually, an ROTC student. So also shows that thankfully we have some training there as well. We have a packed show. Jordan's here also. We have a lot of guests.

You're going to want to stay tuned. Don't go anywhere. We will be taking calls but only in the first few segments. So if you want to call in about this or any of the other issues happening this week, you’ve got to do it right now. 1-800-684-3110. 1-800-684-3110. Call in now as we are wrapping up our Global Impact Week. Seven days of global impact. We're even showcasing all the work we've been doing around the world. Be a part of that today at ACLJ.org.

Guest (Male): Right now your most sacred rights are under attack. Your right to free speech, your right to worship, your right to educate your children the way you choose. If successful, these attacks will have a destructive impact on the future of our republic. We're fighting in courtrooms across the country to have a lasting impact, defending and upholding our values that this nation was founded on.

From protecting the rights of kids to pray and share their faith, the best thing you can do is take a stand. There's nothing too small. A kid who wants to start a Bible club is how the ACLJ got its first case to the US Supreme Court. And today, we would take that case as long as we needed to. Every victory makes a major impact, and it's only possible because of the support of ACLJ members and champions.

This is your opportunity to double your impact to defend freedom for you, your children, and generations to come. Go to ACLJ.org/impact and have your tax-deductible donation doubled 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.

Logan Sekulow: Welcome back to Sekulow. We do want to give you an update of what was going on with those two terror attacks that happened yesterday. One in Michigan. Of course, that was the one that was going to be at a, like I said, what would be considered a mega church version of a synagogue with a large school.

Jordan Sekulow: Talk about this area. I mean, this is a very nice area. It's about 25 miles from Detroit. It's where most auto executives live. I mean, it's beautiful area in Bloomfield Hills Township. And this was in West Bloomfield. A quarter of the population there is Jewish.

So it had out of the 65,000 people that live in this very nice community. Right. I mean, they're very much a part of the community. So to be so, again, probably felt relatively safe because they've been in this community for so long. They've had security that they've needed. And still, this was right on the edge of a massacre.

Because you had a preschool, so very young children. 150, so it's a big preschool. Like you said, this is on the size of like a very large synagogue and the work that they do with the education too. And I just want to say this. I think that one of the issues is not just the fact that we're in a conflict with Iran. I think that's part of it.

But I think when the rhetoric from the left, the rhetoric from the Candace Owens, Tucker Carlson right, and then the targeted work that Islamic radical groups and Iran do online to reach people, you have three different avenues to try and convert people into carrying out attacks to kill Jews and to kill Americans.

So you have the leftist version, they target them. Oh, we're on the left. You have the right-wing version. And then you've got the religious version. And so that is a dangerous combination because you're talking about the most radicalized people in every political side in the United States, but also religiously.

So they don't care who carries out these attacks ultimately, if it's a liberal leftist, a right-winger, or a devoted Muslim who is radicalized. They don't care so long as Jews and Americans die.

Will Haun: Well, and Jordan, I think to that point, what we saw yesterday was horrific. We are thankful, one, that the security at that synagogue was able to neutralize that threat quickly. Tragically, at Old Dominion University, which the high school I went to was right down the street, like blocks from ODU, have many friends that attended university there.

But the fact that they were even able to minimize what could have been much, much worse as a classroom was opened fire upon. Those heroic ROTC members at ODU that were able to take down, and tragically, their professor was killed, but they minimized what could have been much, much worse. When you talk about that, we see that from both these, all the accounts point to one.

The one at ODU had already been convicted of supporting ISIS. So we know that ideology there, radical Islam. The individual in Michigan, the media is already trying to put out almost a mea culpa for the person, that he had family that died in airstrikes in Lebanon. And he's a naturalized individual from Lebanon. And so he was taking out his anger on a synagogue.

Once again, that is that twisted mentality. But at the same time, when you have on the same day that this happened, this is what Candace Owens put up about the airstrike that hit that school in Iran. She responded to something that the Tucker Carlson Network had put up by saying this: "It was not a mistake. Israel is required to mass murder children because they worship Baal. Trump does as he is instructed by Jared Kushner and BB Netanyahu."

When you have that on the same day that an attack on an American mosque, I mean, sorry, an American synagogue, whatever it is, no matter the religion, there should not be an attack on a house of worship. But on that same day that she puts that up, this happens. The Iranians that have been so good at their propaganda on places like X, they are celebrating that now the American conservative right has voices like this doing their hard work for them.

Jordan Sekulow: Oh yeah, it's a lot easier for a conservative who listens to Candace Owens and likes what she has to say to accept a statement like that than it would be if it was coming from the new Ayatollah who may not be even awake or alive.

But when it comes from her, it's a very different kind of message because it's a fellow American, it's someone they trust, they listen to every day, they feel like they have this personal relationship with. And then when you say that a group of people or Jews are required to just kill children because they worship Baal.

I mean, this is the worst of the worst blood libel that was out in Europe, and not during the Nazis. This was during the time in Spain. I mean, this goes back to really thousands of years when you've seen the beginning of any kind of persecution of Jews, it started with that kind of blood libel as that they kill children, they drink their blood.

That is literally what she's now posting on X as something that is totally normal if they can't say that as a military, that they were conducting with the US that they had made a mistake or that it's part of the fog of war when you go in with this much firepower, there are going to be casualties of citizens that are noncombatants.

But overall, do you see the Iranian people rejecting what we're doing? Do you see Iranian people in America rejecting what's going on right now? No. They understand that there will have to be loss of life unfortunately to see a change in leadership in Iran that ultimately the people there will have to bring about.

Logan Sekulow: Yeah, when you have a moment where you have a DHS that's also not being funded, it gets very concerning. Will and I went to see Matisyahu last week, a known, probably the most known Jewish artist, musician.

And the amount of security, this was in Nashville, Tennessee. The amount of security they had put extra security did make me feel better, but it was so sad that it had to happen. That you knew that. We were in New York City, my wife and I, over the last couple days. We went to places that are predominantly known where Jewish people are, different famous restaurants, different areas of the city where there are a lot of Jewish people who are very publicly Jewish, if you will, as Jeff Ballabon would say.

Orthodox Jews or these are even mainstream Jews that wear yarmulkes and you see them around town, big groups of areas. And I'm not going to lie to you and say that in the current situation, though it felt good to see them all out and to be around Jewish people, that there wasn't in the back of your head thinking about, well, are we just asking for it at this point?

That's not where we should be in America. Certainly not where we should be in Nashville, Tennessee, or in New York City where areas where number one here in Nashville, it's obviously a multicultural city, but a city that has was I would say the birthplace of American Zionism. A lot of it happened right here in Nashville, Tennessee because of a little man you may know of named Johnny Cash, who really brought Christianity and the support of Israel together in the 70s.

And then you have an area like New York City where there are the most Jewish people outside of Israel living, and I'm still having to walk around being concerned about the safety of my family and the safety of all these people around me just because I'm eating at a Jewish delicatessen or I am walking through a district that is primarily a Jewish people or an area of Jewish people.

It is a really bizarre world to be living in right now and I don't know if you fully can grasp it if you aren't visiting these areas. And the shocking part is, it's not unwarranted. This is not an unwarranted fear. Two attacks happened yesterday for this reason. A bomb was nearly put off from an ISIS inspired teenager while we were there.

It just didn't go off because they failed at putting it together correctly. They had all the components. Yeah, I mean, it's not like this was a dummy. This was just, thank God, you had a great NYPD and a great moment of failure that this would happen. These are not unwarranted concerns, and then you have the DHS defunded. You have the Department of Homeland Security not able to operate.

Will Haun: Well, and I want to play this real quick. This is from Chris Hayes and Katy Tur on MSNow and they're talking about the Department of Homeland Security being defunded. Something we spent a lot of time on yesterday and the Democrats in the Senate once again blocked a test vote for moving forward. Let's go ahead and play bite seven on their take on the DHS.

Chris Hayes: I think if you think about the nature of focus is that it can only be in one place. That's definitionally how focus works. If you look at the Department of Homeland Security as an entity and to a certain extent the Department of Justice, Department of Homeland Security, which was created in the aftermath of 9/11, quite famously, as a response to what was perceived as the failures that led to 9/11. There is no way that anyone plausibly could say that it had the focus on stopping terrorist attacks. Its focus is on immigration and mass deportation. That's not even a controversial statement.

Katy Tur: Well, they're trying to link that with stopping terrorism.

Chris Hayes: Yes, but descriptively, it is the case that what that agency has turned itself to do is to do that.

Logan Sekulow: That is the most ridiculous commentary I've ever heard in my life because, one, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, yeah, their focus is on just that. That's one division. That's under the umbrella of Department of Homeland Security.

That's one division. They've got thousands of staff that then could focus on terror working with the FBI, working with Department of Justice and all that combined. And what I'd say to MSNow and Chris Hayes is that anytime they announce that they are going after Muslim terror groups, then MSNow and Chris Hayes will say they are acting Islamophobic.

So they can't win with the left on MSNow. It just doesn't work. They're going to hit you every way, and they do it in a really dumb way because he knows that ICE is just a component of DHS.

Jake Tapper had a pretty good statement. I wonder if I could find it, play it for in the next segment, where he actually said it's time for the right and the left to both fully come out here. It's time to just say we are done with kind of going around the issue here. Condemn what is happening right now. We have to do it. And that was coming from CNN. Maybe it's coming from a new CNN. That is what he said. 1-800-684-3110. And we've got some special guests coming up in the back half. We'll let you know about them when we get right back.

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): Right now your most sacred rights are under attack. Your right to free speech, your right to worship, your right to educate your children the way you choose. If successful, these attacks will have a destructive impact on the future of our republic. We're fighting in courtrooms across the country to have a lasting impact, defending and upholding our values that this nation was founded on.

From protecting the rights of kids to pray and share their faith, the best thing you can do is take a stand. There's nothing too small. A kid who wants to start a Bible club is how the ACLJ got its first case to the US Supreme Court. And today, we would take that case as long as we needed to. Every victory makes a major impact, and it's only possible because of the support of ACLJ members and champions.

This is your opportunity to double your impact to defend freedom for you, your children, and generations to come. Go to ACLJ.org/impact and have your tax-deductible donation doubled today.

Logan Sekulow: Welcome back to Sekulow. We're only going to be able to take your calls really in this segment and possibly in the next. So give us a call at 1-800-684-3110. Again, I want to actually give you a little bit of preview of what's coming up in the back half hour.

We're going to keep talking about obviously the terror attacks and some of the new information that has come out. Of course, the motivations are now clear. In the clip I want to play with you from Jake Tapper, it's kind of before he had the information. We didn't know the background of the people.

And that's one of the topics of conversation we've had here, which is you used to be able to jump to a conclusion in some ways, whether you feel like that's the right thing to do or the wrong thing to do. If there was a terror attack on a Jewish community center, sadly, you could probably start to picture what that looked like. That has changed.

Will Haun: That is right. And we will have that momentarily and we can get into that a little bit more. But also, I do want to quickly bring up because we are in our seven days of global impact, something that the ACLJ is doing today to fight back against a lot of the rhetoric that is awful that you're seeing around the world.

And some of that, as we have known for decades, begins at the UN. And right now, the UN special rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories, as what her official title is, was put on a sanctions list. Many people were connected with their work at the ICC targeting using lawfare against Israel.

And at the beginning of this administration, President Trump put these people on through executive order and through the State Department on sanctioned entities lists. The special rapporteur is using her daughter to sue the government to get these sanctions removed, saying it creates a hardship on their family.

Basically, "my mother is doing something awful, but it's really hard on us." It'd be like trying to petition the court to have a criminal parent out of jail because they can't work and make money for the family. And this is something that this individual posted in the aftermath of October 7th.

And I want everyone to see this. This is one of the reasons why this individual was sanctioned. This is a tweet that was put on X by this individual and it was in response to a statement that was published in a French newspaper about Emmanuel Macron saying that this was the biggest antisemitic massacre of our century, talking about October 7th.

Pretty non-controversial factual statement. Her response to this article: "The biggest antisemitic massacre of our century? No, Mr. Macron. The victims of October 7th were not killed because of their Judaism but in reaction to Israel's oppression. France and the international community did nothing to prevent it. My respects to the victims."

Trying to stay and completely rewrite history of what happened on October 7th, who was targeted and why. And this is the UN special rapporteur for the Palestinian occupied territories. She has been sanctioned by the Trump administration. She is suing through her daughter to get those sanctions removed.

We are filing a very important brief today in support of the government's position that the president and the Department of State can use these tools in their toolbox without someone going to court and getting it overturned. There is a reason that this type of rhetoric is being sanctioned and her work in lawfare against Israel, our ally, is being sanctioned and should continue to be. And Jordan, we are filing an important brief today to ensure that that stands.

Jordan Sekulow: You know, and I think this is so key, folks, that we're engaged in this battle because this is part of the war, the rhetoric. We talked about the rhetoric in the last segment. When you have rhetoric like that at the UN, you're spreading that out to the world as if it's okay to say no, this has nothing to do with them being Jews and justifying the attack.

This is a UN employee who is supposed to specialize on reporting on human rights. How about the human rights violations carried out by Hamas on a daily basis? Did she do many reports on that? I have a feeling no. But instead justifying this attack by saying they were attacking Israel because they are the oppressors and occupiers, they happen to be Jews.

And so again, when you use this rhetoric, like I'm saying, she's talking to the radical Islamic community. And then you take the rhetoric of the Candace Owens and Tucker Carlson stuff that they're putting out on the same day these attacks are occurring.

And then you take rhetoric on just the left in America, the AOCs of the world and this anti-Israel hate and throw in Ilhan Omar and the squad. You go from elected Democrats to influential Republicans, at least they are big voices on the conservative far right now. And then you've got the UN. I mean, that is a dangerous combination, Logan, of rhetoric that turns into violence.

Logan Sekulow: Yeah, and it's happening. And it's happening in real time. This is not something that is theoretical. This is not a threat anymore. This is actual violence that is happening in the streets of America. Around the world, sadly, we may be become a little immune to it because we know there has been these sort of attacks throughout Europe and throughout the Middle East.

But now it's here. And it's been here for last few years, but it feels like it's been wrapping up a lot more over the last few months again as the conservative side, the right wing, has decided to embrace this kind of hate as well. So much so that I'm about to play you a clip from Jake Tapper. And again, this was as things were unfolding yesterday. So I don't want it to seem like he's talking about he's unclear who what the victims or what the shooter's motives were. This was when it was happening in real time. And you can tell in his voice, and this again is from CNN. We just played MSNBC, MSNow. They're never going to be on that side, probably. They're never really going to be this honest.

But at least you have some people who are willing to say these things, and I’ve got to give it up to Jake Tapper for this. You don't hear us say that a lot. Here's Jake Tapper on CNN yesterday.

Jake Tapper: We're seeing the real life consequences to the elevation and platforming and legitimizing of antisemitic voices. To be crystal clear, we do not know the motivations of the attacker, this would-be mass murderer of Jews. We don't know their political views. But the Overton Window, the measure of acceptable discourse, has opened to some of the most hateful antisemitic voices out there on the left and the right.

Logan Sekulow: And he goes on from there. We were only able to pull that clip. He goes on from there to go even more into how we've seen now the expansion of, and he even said, kind of more started with the left wing.

But now we have seen it not just creep into the right, we have seen it take a loud voice in the right. And again, they will say it's just Israel, it's not the Jewish people. But we know that's not true. You know why? Because you see what they post. You see the way they talk. Because they've combined it and all of a sudden you have a threat to where you are concerned to go outside.

Will Haun: And I think it's important here as well because a lot of conservative outlets have shared this clip and are taking the wrong message from it. They are trying to say he says we don't know the motivations of the attacker at this point in and then correctly adds to that and says we don't know his political ideology.

He just says we know this would have been their plan was mass murder of Jews. And a lot of people on the right have used that to pounce and say, "Look, Jake Tapper's trying to cover up. We know the motivation." And now we also know who the individual was. At the time when that was being reported, as it was ongoing, 100 percent I agree with Jake Tapper.

Because the problem is now, the voices are so loud on the right that are saying some of the most despicable things, like Candace Owens saying that it was not an accident hitting a girl's school in Iran saying it is required of Israel to sacrifice children. Those are the voices on the right. So Jake Tapper, I'm glad you're calling it all out when you don't know at that point because at that point we were watching it and I was concerned that it may be someone that is listening to those voices as well.

Logan Sekulow: Yeah, because you look at it and go, when it's a radical Islam attack, you go, "Well, it's sort of in the doctrine of radical Islam to not be supportive of Americans or Jews." When it's the right, it's almost more extreme because it's this complete made-up conspiracy theory. Now we have second half hour coming up.

This is going to be a very different second half hour. Jordan's got a guest coming on. I've got a guest coming on. My guest, you may remember, was stuck in space for almost a full year, Butch Wilmore. He's going to be joining us in the last segment of the show. And then my brother, Jordan, you’ve got a segment coming up too. You’ve got ten seconds to tease who it is.

Jordan Sekulow: Yes, it is the attorney general candidate in Oklahoma John Echols, but he's also going to update us on who's going to fill that Senate seat that Markwayne Mullin is going to be departing.

Logan Sekulow: Big second half hour coming up. ACLJ.org if you don't get it on your station.

Guest (Male): Right now your most sacred rights are under attack. Your right to free speech, your right to worship, your right to educate your children the way you choose. If successful, these attacks will have a destructive impact on the future of our republic. We're fighting in courtrooms across the country to have a lasting impact, defending and upholding our values that this nation was founded on.

From protecting the rights of kids to pray and share their faith, the best thing you can do is take a stand. There's nothing too small. A kid who wants to start a Bible club is how the ACLJ got its first case to the US Supreme Court. And today, we would take that case as long as we needed to. Every victory makes a major impact, and it's only possible because of the support of ACLJ members and champions.

This is your opportunity to double your impact to defend freedom for you, your children, and generations to come. Go to ACLJ.org/impact and have your tax-deductible donation doubled today.