SEKULOW

Announcer: On today's show, early results are in from the LA mayoral race as the counting continues. 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. Maybe we shouldn't be surprised here. It's June 3rd, 2026, and in an election year, it seems they just can't count the ballots well. We can't get that right. Jordan's here too.

Look, there are some early results we're going to cover. Probably some of the early results you saw about 8:00 PM Pacific time last night. That first tranche came in, 50% of the votes came in, and then we hit a standstill.

Jordan Sekulow: So what we're looking at is a 21,000 vote difference between Karen Bass and Spencer Pratt. Then Spencer Pratt has about 41,000 more than Nithya Raman, who is the councilwoman who was also running as a Democrat to unseat Karen Bass.

Here's what's crazy, though. In the city election for Los Angeles, they have only counted 496,608 votes, which is only about 63% of what they think they have to count. When you look back at previous elections, including 2024, when you get to that 95% threshold, that's when a lot of places, especially if it's a close race, are comfortable making a call of who's projected to win.

Obviously, it takes some time to certify the elections. It took 10 days in 2024 for Los Angeles to get to 95% of the results reported. That is also the same amount of time it took the entire state to get to 95% of the ballots counted. 10 days after an election.

So when we're at this level, they've already said for Karen Bass, it would be statistically improbable for her to lose a 60,000 vote lead against the third-place runner to end up in third place. So she has already been told she is going to the runoff. But it's still up in the air between Spencer Pratt and Nithya Raman, even though he has a comfortable lead against her.

Logan Sekulow: I feel like when you look at this lead, and we can break it down because you never know what can happen, but you would have to have almost everyone voting one way. You assume that Karen Bass is going to have a significant amount of mail-in votes as well.

Jordan Sekulow: And that's where you look at the fact that they can even receive ballots after the election that are postmarked on election day. Those can still be counted in Los Angeles. What you're saying is yes, there was obviously a lot of excitement. A lot of people wanted to go vote for Spencer Pratt. He had this kind of insurgent-style political campaign.

Will he still get mail-in votes? Yes, he will. But it would almost have to be a situation where the third-place person makes up a 40,000 vote deficit over the 37% left to be counted. It could happen, but you assume that they're also splitting votes. Karen Bass will still probably get a lot more votes. He still will receive votes. But statistically, it is too close to call between Spencer Pratt and Nithya Raman for that second place.

Logan Sekulow: I think there's a very high likelihood you will see it be between Karen Bass and Spencer Pratt. He thinks so. He said, "Well, obviously God wanted five more months of me exposing all the failures of our mayor, so it's going to be a fun ride." It's always fun to see what goes on in these elections, and this is very different this time. California historically has not been this way.

Jordan Sekulow: The key in all these races is can you get a Republican head-to-head with a Democrat so that you don't end up with two choices between just different Democrats. We don't yet know, but it's good that Steve Hilton is leading in the gubernatorial race. That's about 56% in, so you can't say that's done yet, but it would be great to have a Republican option in each of these races.

It looks like that's at least a potential after the overnights. That's a better spot to be in than waking up and seeing that the Democrats just ran the table in California. It shows you there are a lot of voters who are concerned about the direction of the state.

Logan Sekulow: We will break all of that down, both those races and more. Rick Grenell is going to be joining us. But you can be a part of the show, too. Call 1-800-684-3110 to have your voice on the air today. We'll be right back.

Jordan Sekulow: 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 freedom and defending your rights in court, in Congress, and in the public arena. 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 freedom. 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 at aclj.org.

Announcer: Welcome to the all-new ACLJ app. Expert analysis and insight Big Tech can't censor. Customize your news and get real-time alerts on the issues you care about. Advocacy is now at your fingertips. Take action, make a difference, support the causes you care about with just one tap. Be the first to know. Breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox. Everything you need, all in one place. Stay informed, stay empowered. Download today.

We are so excited to announce the ACLJ's brand-new app. Completely redesigned to provide you with the best tools available to partner with us at the ACLJ. You can watch the daily Sekulow program, sign the petitions, customize your ACLJ membership experience, donate with the click of a button, and receive up-to-the-minute critical updates that the mainstream media can't censor. Just scan the QR code on your screen or go to your phone's app store, search ACLJ, and click install. It's that simple.

Logan Sekulow: In the clip we just played, they did say if you're a Republican, you should be smiling at these results. We're going to be joined by Rick Grenell, who has been really heavily working on California. I think they may not be quite there just yet, but these results are at least showing there is some change of tide there in California.

Now I have to say, California's had Republican governors. We know historically Ronald Reagan and Arnold Schwarzenegger were people who were running as Republicans that won. The gubernatorial race always gives a little more of a chance than just Los Angeles.

Jordan Sekulow: That's right. When you look at the numbers so far with Karen Bass, with all of the negatives on her, she is the only one right now they're looking at and saying she's made it in based off the statistics she's performing in. As you said, you add up all those other people who voted Democrat, but they're not all going to necessarily go and vote for Karen Bass because they voted against her.

So if Pratt is able to get through and it's not two Democrats, his job will be going to those voters who didn't vote for him but also didn't vote for Karen Bass. He can look and say, "Okay, you know you don't want her again. Here's what I can offer and here are my goals." It's not about fundamentally transforming the moral character of this city; it's really just to get to basics of security, police, and getting people back in their homes. Like the basics of what you do as mayor.

Logan Sekulow: It's not MAGA.

Jordan Sekulow: Right. Not flying around the world meeting with other countries when you've got crises going on at home. To that point as well, the councilwoman, Raman, had a lot of comparisons to Mandami. She had a personality that was kind of charismatic and young.

Policy-wise, she was much more in line with someone like Mandami. So if you think about that, it's not like all those people who were really excited about him would all of a sudden say they have to hold their nose and go vote for Mayor Adams if Mandami had lost.

That is kind of the dynamic that you're seeing play out in Los Angeles. Even though I think Karen Bass is much more liberal and progressive than Eric Adams was, that is kind of the dynamic that you're seeing play out in Los Angeles. So it's not all of a sudden that Pratt may have done well, but then there's going to be another 110,000 people who are going to go vote for Karen Bass and it'll be a blowout. It still may be, but you can't necessarily count on all those people even caring to show up.

Logan Sekulow: But it's whether the Democrat establishment floods the money into this ad campaign against Spencer Pratt. You're going to have the wildest amount of negative ads running towards him to get all of those people who were voting against Karen Bass to now try to get them on board.

Jordan Sekulow: I imagine if he is in, it could become the most expensive mayor's race in our history if Republican and independent donors and the big groups start dumping the tens of millions. They usually don't in mayoral races, but because we're talking about Los Angeles here and the whole idea that if you can win in LA, you should be able to win anywhere when those who have been elected to do their job aren't getting the basics done like roads or having enough water ready if there's a fire.

If you find out that's happening in a place where you oversee, you need to get back as quickly as possible and not joke about not being there right now, especially when you knew it was a high potential to happen. Second, clearly the Spencer Pratts of the world are the Republicans that have been able to win in California. Ronald Reagan was a movie star. Arnold Schwarzenegger was a movie star. We agree with them on the social issues, but they may be very different than where most Republicans are.

Logan Sekulow: He's certainly not a Republican in that sense. Technically, the mayor's not a partisan position.

Jordan Sekulow: That's right. The race is not even listing partisan because people just run. Karen Bass obviously was a member of Congress as a Democrat. But that's also part of the confusion for some people. When you go into the ballot box, it isn't listing Republicans and Democrats or party preference; it's just the people by name.

So I think it's one to look for. First, of course, is to see as the votes come in if he maintains the second place. Second, if he does, do Republican and independent donors, both at the grassroots level from outside of Los Angeles, then decide they're going to treat this like a Senate race? This would send a huge signal about the power of the Republican vote in places that look like they've been completely lost. Maybe that's actually where we need to go and look to run more Republicans in places that have been so mismanaged by the left.

Logan Sekulow: Well, and I think what we also see is the governor's race where we have Hilton who has actually taken the lead. He has the most votes. He has 1.3 million, almost 1.4 million votes with 58% of the vote in.

Javier Becerra, who was the former Attorney General of California and was also the Secretary of Health and Human Services under Biden, was chosen for that role because of how progressively pro-choice he is and all the things that he put in place in California under his attorney generalship. He helped pave the way for the governor there to make more liberal laws as far as it comes to being pro-choice, but also going after pro-life pregnancy resource centers and things like that.

Then you have Tom Steyer, who's the billionaire, but not like a Michael Bloomberg billionaire running for office. He's the type of billionaire that decides he has so much money he can be as liberal as he wants and it doesn't matter. So he takes the extreme far-left on every single position. He has just under a million votes. Then there is a second Republican with half a million.

You look at this, they haven't called any of it yet, but Steve Hilton is the leader. It looks very much like it could be Steve Hilton versus Becerra. It would be pretty big for someone like Tom Steyer to overcome a 300,000 vote deficit with the way that things progress, even with the mail-in voting.

Jordan Sekulow: It's hard to imagine because Steve Hilton's going to get more too with the 56% that's reporting. So it looks like again, we're not there yet, but it's close that we're going to have a Republican choice. This jungle primary system is actually backfiring on Democrats in California as we speak because it's not just finishing up with two Democrats.

It looks like that may not be the case when you're talking about the LA Mayor as well as the Governor. Then it goes to whether the Republican Party, the apparatuses, and the outside groups go in and spend the big dollars to try and make stunning victories in both the mayor's race and the governor's race.

Also a big shout out, too, to someone very close with us. He was the former US Attorney just recently in Montana, Kurt Alme. He ran to replace Steve Daines in the US Senate and won his Republican primary by 76% as the votes are coming in right now. So it'll be close to 80% and we're excited about the general election. Montana does elect Democrats occasionally, but we'll certainly want to get behind him.

Logan Sekulow: One other thing we should talk about because once again, we're looking at California a lot, and we're looking at some of these places that had positive results for more conservative candidates. You're also seeing things like in New Jersey where there was a Democrat who won the primary there to run for Congress who has ties to Al-Qaeda.

Adam Hamway was an Egyptian-born former combat surgeon who volunteered and interned with a nonprofit that was linked to Al-Qaeda in Bosnia, as well as he was called as a defense witness for the trial of the Blind Sheikh. He has now become a nominee for the Democrat Party in New Jersey.

Jordan Sekulow: We might need to give a background on who that is. The Blind Sheikh was a big-time top-notch terrorist with Al-Qaeda that we have prosecuted in the United States. He really dominated the New York political scene as far as the trials around the Blind Sheikh for so long. This is pretty shocking that these kinds of individuals are getting through the process. It just shows you kind of where the left is right now.

Logan Sekulow: New Jersey is so weird. You feel like it should not be these kinds of candidates out of New Jersey. Spending any time in New Jersey, it just does not feel very Bruce Springsteen, "the boss," having the Blind Sheikh.

Jordan Sekulow: He definitely has a lot of labor union type Democrats winning, but not guys who were tied to terror attacks that impacted a lot of people in New Jersey.

Logan Sekulow: Absolutely. We're going to take some more phone calls. 1-800-684-3110. Also support the work of the ACLJ. We've got a petition up right now that I think you could be a part of. Go to aclj.org/sign. I'd like you to do that. Petitions go up all the time. It's a great way to get involved. Give us a call. We'll be right back with more on Sekulow.

Announcer: Welcome to the all-new ACLJ app. Expert analysis and insight Big Tech can't censor. Customize your news and get real-time alerts on the issues you care about. Advocacy is now at your fingertips. Take action, make a difference, support the causes you care about with just one tap. Be the first to know. Breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox. Everything you need, all in one place. Stay informed, stay empowered. Download today.

We are so excited to announce the ACLJ's brand-new app. Completely redesigned to provide you with the best tools available to partner with us at the ACLJ. You can watch the daily Sekulow program, sign the petitions, customize your ACLJ membership experience, donate with the click of a button, and receive up-to-the-minute critical updates that the mainstream media can't censor. Just scan the QR code on your screen or go to your phone's app store, search ACLJ, and click install. It's that simple.

ACLJ Ad - Jordan Sekulow: 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 freedom and defending your rights in court, in Congress, and in the public arena. 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 freedom. 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 at aclj.org.

Logan Sekulow: Back to Sekulow. I want you to call in and be a part of the show today. 1-800-684-3110. We have a lot of California listeners. Did you vote yesterday? Did you vote by mail? Did you vote in person? And if you did vote in person, what did the scenes at the polls look like? Give us a report from the ground there.

Some people don't like doing this, but if you're willing to, we'd love to know who did you vote for and why. No judgment, just who did you vote for and why? And your favorite song about California. Give us a call. 1-800-684-3110.

With that, though, there is an update on some of the work of the ACLJ. I want to make sure for those of you who maybe are over California and don't want to hear about it all the time, there are some big updates in our current fight against CNN at the Supreme Court of the United States. You know you've heard about this if you've been a longtime listener. This has been a case we've been working on for many months. It has been moved around a few times, and now we are finally starting to maybe settle in and get more information.

Jordan Sekulow: This is a case we've talked about for quite a while now since the end of last year when we filed our cert petition at the Supreme Court. This is relating to a defamation case where CNN ran with a narrative and repeated this narrative, and it was a lie against Alan Dershowitz who had given testimony in the well of the Senate during the first impeachment of Donald Trump.

They took what he said, clipped it out of context, and created something they called the Dershowitz doctrine, and then ran with this lie basically saying he said the opposite of what he actually said. In lower courts, they denied his defamation claim because of New York Times v. Sullivan.

There was even one judge that wrote that but for New York Times v. Sullivan, clearly there was defamation here. Clearly, Alan Dershowitz was defamed by CNN, but because of New York Times v. Sullivan, we can't do anything about it. That's a Supreme Court precedent that gives this higher standard of defamation if it's against a public figure.

It gets very complicated in the age of media and social media. If you have an Instagram account or TikTok account that's not private and you put lots of info up and maybe you use it for sales or to promote some companies, why would you not be considered a public person under the current law and interpretation of New York Times versus Sullivan? Thus an average person who just has a public social media account that could be fairly active would go that way. If you had 1,000 plus followers, I think you could certainly make the case that this is someone who is going out to the public and they're not stopping anyone from looking at their account.

Logan Sekulow: There's the malice bar as well. I don't think those who wrote this law ever intended it to apply to public citizens; it applied to public elected officials and those who work for those officials in the government.

Jordan Sekulow: And once again, they also had the ability to go back and check their work. They came up with the term. They came up with the Dershowitz doctrine. They doubled down on it. They didn't say, "Did he just say that or did we get that wrong? Let's get the full clip so we can actually make sure what we're doing is right." They didn't do that till weeks later and only because he was demanding it.

When no one was paying attention anymore, they kind of went on there and said, "Well, you could have also interpreted it this way." They still would not say that they cut it to make it look bad. You even had that judge say in the opinion that it was defamation, it's just whether or not he's a public official that is the bar here.

Logan Sekulow: So what's going on now?

Jordan Sekulow: Remember, we filed this cert petition back in December of 2025. It's now June. We filed the petition, and in January, CNN waived their right to respond. It was distributed for conference in February of this year. Then the Supreme Court justices said, "You know what? We actually want to hear what CNN's response is." That kicked the can down the road to March. They filed their response, then they asked for an extension of their response. They finally filed that in April.

Then we filed our reply brief here in May. It was distributed for conference a second time, May 5th. They then rescheduled another conference, May 26th. Then it was distributed for conference again on June 1st. They distributed it for the conference of June 4th.

Logan Sekulow: This is now the fourth scheduled conference.

Jordan Sekulow: The difference is the first one they said they actually want to hear from CNN. When I was moving the admissions before the justices just about 10 days ago, that was about last Friday, the Friday before Memorial Day. The court was in session that day. It was on the calendar for them after we were done moving three of our ACLJ attorneys into the Supreme Court bar that they would then be leaving to consider our case. Since then, it's already gotten moved yet again two times, and now it is scheduled for tomorrow.

Logan Sekulow: And what they do in conference is vote. As people pray, this is an important time to pray. It takes four justices to take a case.

Jordan Sekulow: That's what I was going to say. What they're actually doing in conference is voting. It's called the rule of four. You have to have five to win a case, but to have the Supreme Court accept it and hear it, it has to have at least a minimum of four justices say this is something we feel the court should hear. So that is what we're looking for, and we could know Monday. They do the orders list every Monday following the week before's conference. We could know Monday something, or we could see it be redistributed for conference. There are some options there, but we are praying at this point that tomorrow when the justices are in conference and they hear about this again, that they are moved to take this case.

What I would say is that we know that there are justices on the US Supreme Court that have written about this before and said that New York Times versus Sullivan has gone too far. But they have to look at this strategically. You cannot get around New York Times versus Sullivan in this case. So it's going to be a major precedent that is being looked at again by the Supreme Court if they say yes to the oral arguments and yes to the briefing on this.

So if you are one of the justices who believes New York Times versus Sullivan has just not been interpreted correctly since the rise of a different kind of media age, you want to make sure you're not just going to bring this case up and end up doubling down on this policy if you think this is not the best vehicle. So they've got to look and see if out of those five, any of them are giving the signal that they could be persuaded to make a change and overturn a precedent.

Logan Sekulow: So then what happens in a scenario that if it is turned down? If they decide not to go forward, where does the law end up? Is it just over?

Jordan Sekulow: The state of where the law has been interpreted remains. What's interesting is that usually in one that's been kicked down this many times, that's a good sign for cases at the Supreme Court. After three, it's either going to get granted or someone is writing a dissent from it not being granted. They are upset that the court did not decide to hear the case.

All right, we'll find out more potentially next week on that. But we're not going anywhere. We still got a second half-hour left on the broadcast. Find the full video experience where you can talk and chat at aclj.org, on YouTube, on Rumble, or Facebook. However you get your podcast, we are there always. That is noon to 1 PM Eastern where we are live Monday through Friday. Sign the petitions if you want. Become a champion. We'll be right back in less than a minute.

ACLJ Ad - Logan Sekulow: For decades now, the ACLJ has been on the front lines protecting your freedom and defending your rights in court, 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 at aclj.org.