SEKULOW

Host: After socialist run the tables in New York, Chuck Schumer says, “We're a united party.” Keeping you informed and engaged. Now, more than ever. This is Sekulow.

Host: We want to hear from you. Share and post your comments or call 1-800-684-3110. And now your host. Welcome to Sekulow. Will Hanes here, joined in studio by Jordan Sekulow. This one is kind of a head-scratcher folks, because I remember not too long ago if you were a conservative and you warned of socialists or socialist policies that were creeping in from the far left into kind of the mainstream Democrat platform, you were called a conspiracy theorist. You were mocked, saying, "Ha, that's so funny. They're afraid of socialists." Yada, yada.

Host: But what we have now is a real engagement from the DSA, Democrat Socialists of America, using the Democrat Party to get their candidates elected and nominated to these party leaders as they move forward to a general election. It started with Mandami winning the mayor race. You also had many of them in the squad who were DSA affiliated. AOC, Corey Bush, those types of members of Congress. But now we're seeing it grow.

Host: We're seeing the three in New York were able to unseat establishment, long-term congressmen in some cases, in the primary. This isn't all of a sudden they flipped the seat. They were able to take the power away from their mainstream candidate or the incumbent in many places to win a nomination in a seat where they will pretty easily win in November. So, you would think that the leadership at least would be cautioning people like, "Okay, let's not blow this out of proportion," you know, try to settle people down as they see what's happening within their own party.

Host: But that's not what you hear from Senator Chuck Schumer, the minority leader in the Senate, as he was asked by reporters on Capitol Hill last night about what happened the night before. Let's go ahead and play bite one, how Chuck Schumer sees this.

Chuck Schumer: About the candidates who lost their race. It feels like he's going after establishment folks here. I mean, are you concerned about your own race coming up? Do you still feel like this is the same party that you once elected to 50 years ago? We have a great unified party, and we're going to stop Trump. Are you worried about your political future now?

Host: There we go, Jordan. We have a great unified party and we're going to stop Trump. This is coming from the minority leader in the Senate. Obviously he hopes to take back majority leader. I don't think that's going to happen.

Host: But you hear that at the same time his counterpart on the House side, they were chanting at some of these rallies, "You're next" to Hakeem Jeffries.

Guest (Jordan Sekulow): Yes, I mean, this is again, I don't know what party he's talking about that's united, because we've seen this Democrat Socialist movement come in into New York and with the mayor backing these very radical candidates to take on incumbent Democrats who themselves are pretty liberal. I mean, these are not like moderate Democrats. They they they represent progressive areas of New York City, and yet they were not liberal enough because they don't want all prisons to be closed. They don't think that, you know, everybody should be able to immigrate here and no immigration laws in the country and defunding the police and of course, anti-Israel.

Guest (Jordan Sekulow): What we saw with the unifier among a lot of these races was an anti-Israel, anti-Jewish bias. So even when a Democrat, Dan Goldman, for you know, who was on the, he was lead counsel for the first impeachment. So when we were down there on the floor of the Senate, he again was the the House's lead counsel to impeach President Trump in that first impeachment. So he he gets all that attention. You would say, "Okay, that's a good way to move into the very left district in New York City." Well-known family. But because he happens to be Jewish and a supporter of Israel, though he's not certainly not the number one supporter. I don't see him like on the front lines necessarily because of his progressive areas that he represents, he was too moderate, too Jewish, I would say, to represent the district anymore.

Host: That's right. And we're going to talk about this as we come back from the break. And I've got a kind of a breakdown. It shows obviously the minority leader in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, trying to save some face here as they are probably really freaking out trying to figure out how to fix this. But I'll read some headlines when I get back to you, you're not going to want to miss it. And if you are watching this, and this is your first time seeing us, go ahead and subscribe to the channel, give us a thumbs up, and tell us where you're watching from in the chat, because it really helps us get the word out to more people. But we'll be right back with more about how the Democrats are handling these losses as you saw called on Tuesday.

ACLJ: The challenges facing Americans are substantial. At a time when our values, our freedoms, and our constitutional rights are under attack, it's more important than ever to stand with the American Center for Law and Justice. For decades now, the ACLJ has been on the front lines, protecting your freedoms, defending your rights in courts, in Congress, and in the public arena. And we have an exceptional track record of success. But here's the bottom line. We could not do our work without your support. We remain committed to protecting your religious and constitutional freedoms. That remains our top priority, especially now during these challenging times. The American Center for Law and Justice is on your side. If you're already a member, thank you. And if you're not, well, this is the perfect time to stand with us at ACLJ.org, where you can learn more about our life-changing work. Become a member today. ACLJ.org.

ACLJ: After nearly 50 years, Roe v. Wade, the tragic ruling that manufactured a so-called right to abortion, has been overturned by the United States Supreme Court. This is the moment the ACLJ has been fighting for. It's the biggest victory we've achieved in our three-decade long fight against the soulless abortion industry. And believe me, abortionists like Planned Parenthood are devastated. This victory would not have been possible without the steadfast prayer and support of ACLJ members like you. On behalf of the entire ACLJ, I thank you for standing with us against the abortion industry and helping us save defenseless babies. I thank you for making this victory possible. And I ask you for your continued prayer and support as we continue to battle against barbaric new abortion laws across our nation.

Host: Welcome back to Sekulow. Will Hanes here, joined by Jordan Sekulow in studio. As we go through the spin that we're seeing out of the leadership of the Democrat Party, as they tried to make sense of their new world, their new reality, after these three socialists win in New York City. And this isn't just for the mayor of New York City, even though that's a big position. These are three members of Congress that will be effectively elected now. There's not going to be much of an opposition in these districts. Once you win the primary, you've pretty much got your seat.

Host: So we're having three new members of the House that are openly socialists, as I say. I remember just a few years back, if you were concerned about creeping socialism in this country, you were mocked by the media, mocked by the left. That, "Oh, that's so funny. You think that socialism, you know." I mean there was even that famous line of when Mitt Romney was debating Barack Obama and he said something to the effect he thought that Russia was a geopolitical foe. Barack Obama said, "The 1980s called. They want their foreign policy back." So just the concern about these types of things made you something to be laughed at not too long ago.

Host: But I want to play again to reset. This is what Speaker, not speaker, I'm sorry, Leader Schumer said just yesterday about these wins for the socialists in New York when asked about it on Capitol Hill, bite one.

Chuck Schumer: About the candidates who lost their race. It feels like he's going after establishment folks here. I mean, are you concerned about your own race coming up? Do you still feel like this is the same party that you once elected to 50 years ago? We have a great unified party, and we're going to stop Trump. Are you worried about your political future now?

Host: So right there, you have the minority leader of the Senate saying, "We are a unified party." Well, really? Because here's what some headlines read. This is what his friendly media, the press that normally is propping up everything that people like Chuck Schumer or Hakeem Jeffries say, here's what they had to say. This is NBC News, "A Tale of Two Democrat Parties." That's from the political desk, the analysis there in their political desk. Politico, "An Emboldened Hard Left Eyes Schumer Challenge." Wall Street Journal, "Mandami deepens his influence and the divide in the Democrat Party." Then we've got The Atlantic saying, "New York's Warning for Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer." This doesn't sound, Jordan, that the friendly media sees this as rosy as as the minority leader, Chuck Schumer, does.

Guest (Jordan Sekulow): In fact, the truth is, there's no way you can see this as rosy if you're Chuck Schumer because the kind of candidates that were primaried were candidates like him. And so they have similar backings. Yes, they had, these were liberals representing progressive areas who went down because of specific things about them that weren't progressive enough. They weren't liberal enough. They weren't anti-Israel enough. They weren't at pro-Hamas rallies the day after October 7th, as one of these candidates from the Democrat the Democrat Socialist Party in New York, who took out one of the incumbents, was. I mean, they were there the next day on October 8th in rallies again, supporting what happened on October 7th and denouncing Israel. So if you're not that radical, then they're coming for you. And so it's not like they're coming for Republicans or moderate Democrats. They're coming for what we consider progressive liberal Democrats who they believe are now outside the mainstream of their own constituents. They're too moderate for the progressive areas, whether it's a district or state that they represent.

Guest (Jordan Sekulow): The only thing that Chuck Schumer and some of these Senate candidates have going for them is that you have a much larger swath of voters than you do in just a a a congressional district that happens to be in New York City. And these three districts all, you know, falling very far left. Chuck Schumer's got the benefit of the whole state, and that may save some senators who again, but we're talking about very liberal leadership of the Democrat Party. We're not talking about the, you know, the one moderate Democrat left here or there. They're not moderates at all, but they are becoming moderates in their own party and they're becoming ineffective leaders in their own party very quickly, and they're losing to this new younger group, which might appeal to these really progressive districts, Will, but but to everyone else, seem just extremist and dangerous actually.

Host: Well, and anti-American. Here's what I want to hear from you watching. Call me 1-800-684-3110. As Jordan was even saying, these seem like extremist positions. But we also know how well-oiled a machine the DNC is. And that if more of these candidates, one, they've lost their grip on some of these primaries, the DNC. If they then are running as their nominees for office, do you think that this is something that the organization as a whole, the DNC, caves to, and we start to see more of this around the country?

Host: I want to hear from you. Do you think that there is a rise of socialism that is already being able to topple the leadership and the stronghold that the DNC has over their nomination process? Because that's that's one of their prizes at the DNC is the ability to control which candidates are eventually nominated. But I want to hear I want to hear from you about that. 1-800-684-3110. But listen to this bite. This is bite four. This is a super cut of just some of the statements, it's it's four statements. It's from the three that won and then the mayor of New York, about basically what their marching orders are, what they are running on and what they won on. This is after the victory. Take a listen to what they believe in in their own words.

Multiple Speakers: Abolish ICE. Free Palestine. Organize your union. Solidarity is the force that we need to vanquish Trump's fascism. To abolish ICE. And to stand up to the billionaires. We have to use every tool in the toolbox to make sure that we abolish ICE. It was not the end of a political movement. It was the beginning.

Host: Here's what's so interesting to me as well, Jordan, because you have the mayor of New York who actually is a very charismatic leader. You may not agree with a single thing he does, but he's smooth, he he's very good, quick on his feet in interviews. He's also very disarming with with the opposition. Even the way that he and President Trump got along, you could see he is a very savvy individual. And that's obviously why he was able to win elected office of being a nobody in the political world prior to this.

Guest (Jordan Sekulow): Those other three are not. That's the caution to me. You get a charismatic person that can get out there and and really wow people on stage and maybe they're not listening what they're hearing, but they vote for them. Those other three are the opposite of Mandami in a way, but even more like dyed in the wool when it comes to the socialist policies. I mean, they're running on abolish ICE and Free Palestine. Those are two issues.

Guest (Jordan Sekulow): And the fact that they are running inside the Democrat Party. So if you're outside of New York City and you're, you know, let's say Central somewhere in the Midwest or the Southeast or even on the West West Coast in many districts, all you'd have to do is take what they said at that rally after their victories, play those sound bites and say, "This is what's coming to Washington D.C. from the Democrat Party." So, how on earth could you trust voting for anybody who is willing to put the same party label next to their name as these individuals? And you just run that because this, they're not this is not what they're saying behind closed doors. This is what they're campaigning on. And that message has to be made loud and clear to voters across the country because it gets past the savviness. You hear what they say: "Abolish ICE," "stop deportations," "defund the police." The list goes on and on. "Take down billionaires," whatever that means, which really means middle-class Americans, because there's so many people who work for those billionaires and have created nice upper and middle-class lives for people because usually billionaires employ thousands of people. And so they, of course, skip past that that that big asterisk there and act like they are the evil doers. So what you'd go to and you say, all you have to do in a lot of places is play that because you don't have to say, "Hey, this is what they they're really like behind closed doors." They're saying this publicly because it's popular.

Guest (Jordan Sekulow): So for me, I mean, the message is to mainstream Democrats is, can you save your own party? Or is it a sinking ship that is again, may have some successes in very progressive parts of the country. But you get outside of those progressive areas and this is scary, this is scary sounding to even a lot of people who would consider themselves liberal for political purposes.

Host: Well, and I think we should play now. This is a friend of the broadcast, friend of yours, Congressman Moskowitz, Jared Moskowitz from Florida. He is kind of in the the Moskowitz Fetterman kind of group of of the party. I think it's not many left. But let's play bite 14. This is what the Congressman had to say.

Congressman Moskowitz: The DSA has been increasing their power in New York. They got Democratic Socialists of America, you know, they they have a mayor and he's obviously flexing his power. Thankfully we live in Florida and we don't we don't have democratic socialists like they have in New York, and you know, like that's something that people in New York are going to have to decide whether, you know, they want to stay there and deal with those policies or leave.

Host: Well, and and to his point, I think South Florida you I think you have a little bit more cushion because of how large the Cuban population is that is against a lot of what these people in New York are saying.

Guest (Jordan Sekulow): They they the socialist name alone you'd lose a lot of elections in South Florida just because you putting that term is so it's it's just it's enraging to so many people still there who left, had to flee their homes because of socialism. And so you see that embrace of it and it really does turn them off and turns generations off because they've heard the stories from their parents, from their grandparents, and their great-grandparents. But what Jared was saying there is key too. This is a Democrat Congressman saying, "You Democrats may want to decide not to live in New York anymore, because it's not a safe place for mainstream liberal Democrats." We're not talking about outside the norm, we're talking about mainstream liberal Democrats aren't liberal enough for New York anymore.

Host: And he actually has a challenger in Florida, Larkin, that is related to DSA.

ACLJ: After nearly 50 years, Roe v. Wade, the tragic ruling that manufactured a so-called right to abortion, has been overturned by the United States Supreme Court. This is the moment the ACLJ has been fighting for. It's the biggest victory we've achieved in our three-decade long fight against the soulless abortion industry. And believe me, abortionists like Planned Parenthood are devastated. This victory would not have been possible without the steadfast prayer and support of ACLJ members like you. On behalf of the entire ACLJ, I thank you for standing with us against the abortion industry and helping us save defenseless babies. I thank you for making this victory possible. And I ask you for your continued prayer and support as we continue to battle against barbaric new abortion laws across our nation.

ACLJ: The challenges facing Americans are substantial. At a time when our values, our freedoms, and our constitutional rights are under attack, it's more important than ever to stand with the American Center for Law and Justice. For decades now, the ACLJ has been on the front lines, protecting your freedoms, defending your rights in courts, in Congress, and in the public arena. And we have an exceptional track record of success. But here's the bottom line. We could not do our work without your support. We remain committed to protecting your religious and constitutional freedoms. That remains our top priority, especially now during these challenging times. The American Center for Law and Justice is on your side. If you're already a member, thank you. And if you're not, well, this is the perfect time to stand with us at ACLJ.org, where you can learn more about our life-changing work. Become a member today. ACLJ.org.

Host: Welcome back to Sekulow. We're going to take a little bit of a detour here to talk about some of the work of the ACLJ. But don't worry, if you're on hold right now and you're calling about the situation of the the victories in New York for the socialists, the way that the leadership is trying to spin it out of New York. Here's what we've got. We've got a new brief that we have filed at the Supreme Court as this case has made its way up. We also filed at the appeal stage of this as well.

Host: But this has to do with parental rights. It has to do with protecting children. And it is really a unique angle that the ACLJ as well as ACLJ Action in some of these cases as well are starting to wade into because of all the questions that are coming up in courts now about parental rights and protecting children in in the tech world. We talked a few weeks ago about the way we're trying to work with Roblox to try and and get to the bottom of how a game within the game was able to get platformed on there that reenacted Sandy Hook. And that was where people could participate in that. So that's just one angle because we're trying to say, "Hey, look, work with us. We're conservatives. We can work and and make things safer for children without having to get to legislation." But sometimes there is legislation that's needed.

Host: And that's what's happening here. In Texas, they had a Senate Bill 2420 that was called the Texas App Store Accountability Act. And Jordan, this was really a a parental rights type of bill that helped parents know that they could safely let their children participate in the online economy, but in a way that made sure that they still retain control as well as oversight into what their kids are are involved in.

Guest (Jordan Sekulow): Requires and again, this is all new. So even these requirements, we all acknowledge, it's not going to be perfect, but we need to start working on it. So we've done that at the ACLJ. We've testified on it at the federal level, at state levels, and of course, we've been involved in the court cases like in Texas. This case at the U.S. Supreme Court is because the Fifth Circuit said we don't have to stay this law while we are looking at it, whether, you know, it's constitutional, whether it violates other federal laws or not, that this law can go into force. And then we've had this appeal from the groups that oppose our position. They've said, "No, they want the Supreme Court to put an emergency stay in, so that the law out of Texas cannot go into force in Texas."

Guest (Jordan Sekulow): This is what the law requires: App stores to verify users' age through commercially reasonable methods. That means you don't need to go spend trillions of dollars. It has to be commercially reasonable. We're not trying to put a tax on app stores. We're trying to say, "Make them safer." Classify accounts as adult or minor accounts. Again, this will put more power into the hands of parents. And some of this will take parental responsibility. You as a parent will have to take some of this on yourself by making sure that you're signed up the right way. So if you signed up as a minor's account for your child, obtain parental consent. You've seen that already with with many apps do this already and and applications if you have a child that tries to purchase something through the app, you will get a notice yourself and you can actually accept it or deny it. But you you sign up for that. It's technology we know that already does work. And then of course, getting parental consent before there's any purchases. We were just talking about that. You could many apps have already got this in place.

Guest (Jordan Sekulow): But the industry itself, what you know, what they try to say, Will, is that there's no way to do this without violating privacy rights and then we've, you know, how are we going to verify minors and all this and that. And I think this is where it goes to the parental. It really starts with parents taking control. And so while the apps have to have these these actions available, the parents are going to have to turn them on. The parents are going to have to be the monitors. Honestly, if you're going to give the kids these apps and you're not going to monitor at all, these laws aren't going to do much protection for you. What where they're going to work is for the parent who says, as I'm setting up this new technology for my for my kid, they're this age, I'm going to put this level of restriction on. And the apps are going to be and these app stores are going to make it a lot easier and clearer for you to do that.

Host: Well, and here's I think.

Guest (Jordan Sekulow): So it's not app by app.

Host: Right now that's the issue.

Guest (Jordan Sekulow): You have to go app by app instead of the app store in general doing that for you.

Host: And one of the reasons it's also important to get ahead of this on the on the front side of it is when you start to, one, this is right now kind of being fought on a on a first amendment type, free speech, freedom of of of commerce in some ways, kind of issue. They're trying to say like and privacy rights. Like so several different traditional constitutional issues that are being brought up here. And and obviously you're having companies and even app makers that would be opposed to this. You you wonder why places like Amazon have a one-click to purchase. The less friction to revenue for a company, they're going to want. So any sort of barrier to to purchase, it may not be nefarious their opposition to this. It's just that, "Hey, we want to run our business the easiest way, the most profitable way."

Host: But I think even this, getting on the front end of it, taking it on as a parental rights issue, it's something that ACLJ historically has done across the board when it comes to situations like this where the state or outsiders are trying to exert more authority or control over your child than you, the parent. But I think the other thing here that it would be smart for app makers, for big tech companies to get ahead of and maybe support common sense things like this instead of fighting it in court. The more and more we see studies that come out of of how technology and games and and even algorithms affect the brain when it comes to even things like dopamine and the way that they can in and of themselves be addictive.

Host: I think they're going to lose those battles more and more the longer we get down the road because the government already regulates tobacco products, regulates alcohol, other addictive chemicals. If you were to start to look at under that vein, which I know the tech companies don't want it to be looked at, it could be much worse for them. So it's it's important even at this level to start working through this common sense. Let parents have some authority in their family lives to be able to regulate internally these type things. It doesn't have to be the government regulating if you allow the parents to do it and that's in one sense what we're asking for here.

Guest (Jordan Sekulow): As you see our economies. I mean, you can't deny it. Uh, these apps and this technology is going to be used more and more in the classroom. It's going to be more and more part of young people's lives whether you like that or not. That is kind of clear now. And so their ability to utilize these this technology is going to be part of their ability to then prosper in this new economy that they're going to be entering, which is hard to even imagine what it could be like for some of the kids that we're talking about that this would apply to, because these are we're talking about usually under 16 years old for this to apply to. And again, puts puts the onus on parents as well as these app stores. As you say, Will, it's it's really it's unfortunately it's about money.

Guest (Jordan Sekulow): This is about like you said, getting the easy click to download. They don't really care about whether whether it's good content or content the kids shouldn't be getting. It's easy purchases versus one more step. And then they'll try to argue then what are we going to do with privacy? Unfortunately, when we get to the courts on these, which is where they end up, but when we get to the courts on these, it's it's not where you necessarily always want to end up when it comes to technology. And so what I what I hope the courts just do here is to just say, "Let the law, do what Texas Fifth Circuit did with our brief, let the law go into force." And you'll see that this can work and it's not going to be a great a great this ominous hanging over the industry that that runs the app stores and that it's going to be one of the tools parents can use to keep their kids protected online.

Host: That's right. And folks, when you support the ACLJ, you support things like this this very brief that we just filed at the U.S. Supreme Court. So, you're supporting that work. You're also supporting as we talked about multiple times this week, as we stand up for that middle school girl, who was forced multiple times by her school to violate her faith. So when you stand with the ACLJ, you're standing with families across the country. You are helping make this country safer and better for the American family. Support us today at ACLJ.org.

ACLJ: For decades now, the ACLJ has been on the front lines, protecting your freedoms, defending your rights in courts, in Congress, and in the public arena. The American Center for Law and Justice is on your side. If you're already a member, thank you. And if you're not, well, this is the perfect time to stand with us at ACLJ.org where you can learn more about our life-changing work. Become a member today. ACLJ.org.