SEKULOW

Logan Sekulow: Welcome to Sekulow. We are talking about the President's address last night. We're going to discuss that as President Trump did not really unveil a complete timeline, did not make the big announcement we all expected, but at least inferred, very directly inferred, that things were coming to a close. Then he started to give a two-to-three week time frame of when things may end, again saying he was going to finish the job. There was maybe some mixed messaging on the oil situation and what we should do or shouldn't do. I think all of that can be discussed as they have said that Operation Epic Fury is nearing completion.

Phone lines are open for you. What did you think about President Trump's address to the nation? It was the first night of Passover for those that were celebrating, and then tomorrow is Good Friday, leading into Resurrection Day on Sunday, Easter Sunday. It is a powerful time even to have a war happening in the Middle East. I want to hear from you at 1-800-684-3110. President Trump also continued the aggressive talk with Iran, discussed bombing them to the Stone Age—those were some of the phrases being used—if regime change didn't happen, which he's already claiming, which we said was going to happen yesterday. By some of the tone, they are claiming regime change now based on the fact that it is a completely new group of people in charge.

I don't know if that is what the people in the streets were hoping for when they meant regime change. We have to be careful. We're talking about these words, but understanding the oil situation is the one that was probably the most confusing of the night just because if you're just paying attention really to gas prices, the conversation of where we need to be buying, who needs to be buying, who's taking oil from the Straits of Hormuz, what's happening there, that is where it got a little muddy. We're going to discuss that. It is a hot time heading into a midterm election as well as heading into a holiday. We've got Mike Pompeo and Rick Grenell joining us a little bit later.

Will: When you look at some of the commentary from the President Trump detractors, they're saying, "Horrible, why would he do this?" Yet they'd been complaining for forever that he's never addressed the American people directly. They try to have it both ways. In reality, my analysis is that this is the speech he should have given the first weekend of the campaign. It did lay out directives. It did say our goal is to make sure they never have a nuclear weapon. That is what presidents before me and including myself have always said, but it was always talk until we took action. That is a very clear-eyed messaging on what this operation is and continues to be.

If he had done that the first weekend, it would have been a much more timely speech. The timing is interesting. I wonder if there is polling internally or push from some members of Congress saying, "The polls aren't looking great on this, you should probably give a speech," and that's what happened at this point. When you go back to it, I think we'll get to more of this later, and Jordan will be joining us as well as Rick Grenell and Mike Pompeo. It was a very direct speech on what his mission is, what the objective is, and a timeline of two to three more weeks.

Logan Sekulow: We'll discuss that at length. I want to hear from you. Be honest, you can be truthful about what you thought. Did you fully understand the messaging? Do you feel like the messaging was good, or do you feel like it was muddled? What do you think coming out of that? Did you even watch it? Let me know in the chat. Yes or no question: Did you watch President Trump's address to the nation live last night at 9 p.m. Eastern Time? There was that concern that it was going to delay a lot of television, including the finale of *The Masked Singer*, but thankfully my kids were very excited that they decided to come on and say, "Don't worry, *The Masked Singer* will air in its entirety." It got a big round of applause in our household, probably the most reaction to anything after they watched the statement. With that, phone lines are open for you heading into this holiday weekend. I want your thoughts and your calls.

Narrator: Let's be honest, there's a lot happening in America right now. It can be overwhelming. Our values, our faith, our freedoms—they're constantly being challenged in courtrooms and on Capitol Hill. You might worry about the country you'll leave behind for your kids or your grandkids. You might feel you have no say over it, but your voice has power. You make a difference. Right now, when you support the work of the ACLJ, you'll make double the difference. Our legal teams are fighting in courtrooms across the country, defending your rights to speak, to pray, and even how to educate your kids. Right now, when you go to ACLJ.org/difference, your tax-deductible gift will be doubled dollar-for-dollar to defend your most essential liberties. You're not just supporting the critical work of the ACLJ, you're doubling your impact to defend the rights given to us by the US Constitution. Double the difference. Go to ACLJ.org/double today.

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 are going to take more calls at 1-800-684-3110. Jordan's joining us now in studio. Mike Pompeo is in the next segment. Of course, Soleimani got a shout-out during it. President Trump took credit for that being in his first term. We know Mike Pompeo had something to do with that. He was playing an important part in that whole discussion. We'll discuss that at length, I'm sure, more with Secretary Pompeo later on. Rick Grenell's going to be joining us as well with his analysis on President Trump's speech. I want to hear from you. I see mostly people saying they did watch it, some said no, they watched it later on, or maybe they haven't even watched it yet. I do think, Jordan and Will, we were discussing this even in the break, that a lot of people, including us, were anticipating more of a specific push.

Jordan Sekulow: We think a lot of this is to help people understand where we are a month in and what a realistic timeline could look like. He even started by the way he was leading into it, saying all the different specific lengths of time. I very much was actually expecting him to say, "And that's why I can say it is over as of blank." It didn't quite get there. It felt like that's what it was building up to. But once again, the speech that a lot of people had complained about saying he didn't give early on was that he never explained the why. Why is it important? Why did he, as the Commander-in-Chief, feel like it was imminent enough that we needed to go and take this action? He did start out there and lay out the timeline of how bad Iran has been, how many American lives are on the hands of the mullahs in Iran. He laid that out as well as the failures of previous administrations. Then he did get to this—and I think we should play it—where he's talking about Operation Epic Fury. That's where you felt like it was going to be the "and this operation has come to a close," but instead he gave a timeline. Let's roll it.

President Donald Trump: I've made clear from the beginning of Operation Epic Fury that we will continue until our objectives are fully achieved. Thanks to the progress we've made, I can say tonight that we are on track to complete all of America's military objectives shortly, very shortly. We are going to hit them extremely hard over the next two to three weeks. We're going to bring them back to the Stone Age where they belong. In the meantime, discussions are ongoing. Regime change was not our goal. We never said regime change, but regime change has occurred because of all of their original leaders' deaths. They're all dead.

Will: When you hear that, he gives a two-to-three week timeline. He doesn't say that it is over and doesn't give a specific date, which is smart but still kind of leaves it open-ended. But then he is very clear that regime change was not our goal, but still tries to have it both ways and say, "But we did kind of bring that about." I don't know that the people on the ground in Iran would agree that it is a regime change in that sense, even though it is a leadership turnover.

Jordan Sekulow: There's been a leadership change. But those leaders all come from the same regime. Now, they didn't have the grip on power, but these were aging leaders. We had an 80-plus-year-old Ayatollah. They were already grooming the son who right now shows how Iran can operate. That son can be in a coma after being in the same attack, and there's still statements being put out by him. The military is still operating to the best of its capabilities that they have left, though most of their capabilities have been disrupted. They are still in charge. They're still running Iran.

What people wanted to be able to take away last night was the main goal. I think what we saw there was that the main goal is no nukes. That's still the main goal and we're not there yet. We have stopped the capability because we've blown up those facilities, but the uranium is still there and they can rebuild. They could use the help of bad actors in the world who have access to that kind of science and technology to do that. At some point, you either need a people's revolution or that uranium has to get out of Iran. That's more difficult than just an air campaign. It takes time.

The second part of that speech was the prices of gas and oil. That affects everyone. I hit it for the first time yesterday after the show and had to fill up. I had about 21 miles left and I have an SUV. It was $101.

Will: I did this morning, same thing. As I said yesterday, I waited. Whether you can pay it or not, it's still when it hits that third digit, it's tough. As much as that was a speech to say, "I think this is definitely going for a few more weeks," he said that. He didn't talk about sending in a lot of ground troops. There was almost nothing related to that really. He said that he understands the gas prices, that will be temporary. And look, the stock market's not taking as big of a hit as everyone thought, and when this comes to an end, it's going to ramp back up.

Jordan Sekulow: When I look at it, my only concern is also when you have other organizations or other countries, maybe Israel, who is actually I think presenting this as more of a threat than Iran currently has. When you see the rockets being shot at Tel Aviv and things like that that are happening in the last 24 to 48 hours. On the other hand, you have President Trump saying we've really taken out a lot of their ability to do this. I understand that. But that is where it becomes a little double-speak. It was interesting when he said—I don't know if we have the bite, if we do—that we learned that Iran had weapons we weren't 100% sure they knew they had and were able to operate those hypersonic ICBMs. Because of this conflict, we now know that Iran does have some weapon systems that we weren't privy to before with our intelligence.

Will: We can play that for people. That is bite four. But before we even get to that, I think what people don't realize as well is they showed that they had intermediate ballistic missiles during this conflict with Iran. That is something that we didn't believe they had gotten to yet. Ones that could go in the 4,000-kilometer range. That puts our key allies—France, the UK, Germany, NATO members, ones that we have Article 5 defense pacts with—in the position that if they were to shoot an intermediate ballistic missile at London, that would start World War III. Everyone's been complaining about that, and no one thought they had it, even though we for over a decade now have been saying they need to focus on the ballistic missile program. Barack Obama didn't do the world any service when he made a deal and didn't limit their ballistic missile program. What did they do? They developed a weapon that could hit London and Paris and Munich and all of these capitals that we are NATO allies with easily. That would be a much bigger, more dangerous situation if they are able to repeatedly strike those places. But we have now taken out that capability. Let's play bite four where President Trump is even talking about this.

President Donald Trump: Iran's strategy was so obvious. They wanted to produce as many missiles as possible, and they did, with the longest range possible. They had some weapons that nobody believed they had. We just learned that. We took them out. We took them all out so that no one would really dare stop them and their race for a nuclear bomb, a nuclear weapon, a nuclear weapon like nobody's ever seen before. They were right at the doorstep. For years, everyone has said that Iran cannot have nuclear weapons, but in the end, those are just words if you're not willing to take action when the time comes.

Will: Here is why this is a completely different conversation if it's six months to a year from now and they have a whole stockpile of those intermediates and they're able to target those allies in that way and our bases in Germany. It goes from Israel being the main target that they can easily hit and Israel having been beat up on by all sides for generations now to, "I don't know if we can actually strike Iran because they may hit London." That is a different conversation. Then Iran has immunity from our attack because everyone's afraid you'll hit London. Then what do they get? A nuclear weapon. Then this theocratic, genocidal death cult has a nuclear weapon, and they would use it.

Logan Sekulow: Phone lines are open for you. I want to take your calls and comments right now. Of course, in celebratory fashion, the Artemis 2 successful launch. NASA's kind of returned to space as the mission back to near the moon, around the moon, further than the moon, the furthest mission we've ever done. A lot of people are celebrating from that. Our friend Butch Wilmore, who was stuck in space for a year, is currently making the rounds on Fox News and all that. You should go back and listen to our full interview with Butch. It's really a fascinating one if you're interested in the space program and everything that's happening right now. Again though, phone lines are open for you at 1-800-684-3110. When we get back, Mike Pompeo's going to be joining us. We'll get his thoughts on last night's speech. Lines are jammed, but keep calling, they'll open up. A couple days ago, we wrapped up our Double Your Impact drive. I am pleased to announce we are now able to launch a new drive thanks to so many of you that supported the work of the ACLJ during the month of March. We will be now officially unveiling our Double the Difference drive. Your donation is doubled right now. This will go through the month. We have some really special weeks throughout the month, including some focus on the Supreme Court. We are very thankful that we're able to even offer this again. This is only because people like you have supported. Again, we were able to beat our goal and that opened us up to be able to do more. Go to ACLJ.org/double right now. Support our work on the legal side. Support our work on the media side, the media operation here at the ACLJ. That includes this show. It only happens because of you, not because of ads, not because of anything else.

Narrator: 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.

Let's be honest, there's a lot happening in America right now. It can be overwhelming. Our values, our faith, our freedoms—they're constantly being challenged in courtrooms and on Capitol Hill. You might feel you have no say over it, but your voice has power. You make a difference. Right now, when you support the work of the ACLJ, you'll make double the difference. Our legal teams are fighting across the country, defending your rights to speak, pray, and even how to educate your kids. Join the fight. Go to ACLJ.org/double to have your gift doubled today.

Logan Sekulow: Welcome back to Sekulow. Mike Pompeo is joining us, Senior Counsel for Global Affairs. Last night President Trump made his address to the nation, covered a lot of things that occurred even during the first term. Secretary Pompeo, you were obviously directly involved with what was going on, specifically in Iran and Soleimani and everything that came with that. Lots of headlines after last night's speech. I just want to get your general initial thoughts.

Mike Pompeo: A couple takeaways. One, President Trump was very clear. We've done amazing work so far. The military's done remarkable work. We have decimated the regime's military capabilities: its navy, its air force, its missile launcher systems, and all the drone capabilities. We've decimated them, but there's work to do. He talked about a couple or three weeks. By the way, that jives with what he said initially. He was talking about the middle to the end of April. That's about consistent. He reminded people that this is lightning speed. We've all become so used to Netflix episodes that wrap up in 27 minutes. This is the real world. So there remains work to do.

Second, he was urging our allies to get serious about this. The threat to them is real as well. Europe has just as much risk from an Iran that is nuclear-armed or even with ballistic missiles that can reach them now. They're just as much a threat as we are in the United States and so they ought to take on their proportionate role of the responsibility.

Finally, he made clear to our allies in the region that we're going to protect them as well. We're going to make sure that in the aftermath of this, ships can sail through the Strait of Hormuz. People in Dubai or Kuwait City or in Oman can live their lives safely. He's going to make sure that we secure their peace so that we can live in a much more stable, peaceful world in the aftermath of this conflict which was so necessary and so timely. For President Trump, I think history will regard this as a monumental decision where there was real risk and he did a fantastic job of keeping Americans safe.

Will: One of the interesting parts of this was when he talked about what President Obama had done and how negatively that impacted all of where we are today. He talked about the money that was obviously released to the Iranians. But also, the world found out that they have these intermediate ballistic missiles. That is something I know you as a member of Congress were very much saying. If you're going to do a deal with Iran, you can't ignore the ballistic missile program. We now find out that they have advanced missiles that can reach US bases in Germany, London, Paris, and NATO allies. What does that tell you as well? Not a "told you so" moment, but the fact that they were almost at a point where they would almost have an immunity shield because then the argument would always be, "You can't go bomb the Iranian nuclear sites because then they'll hit London."

Mike Pompeo: You're exactly right. The timing of this, if anything, is too late. President Obama should have done it. I wish President Trump had done it in his first term in some sense. That would have been easier than the challenges that we're facing today. Their air defense systems two years from now would have been multiples as good as they are today. President Trump got it right to say, "No, this is something we need to do and the time to do that is now."

Your point is also very well taken. Shocking, the Iranians lied about what they were doing. They lied about their missile program. They lied about their nuclear capability. They continued in spite of this agreement that President Obama signed to fund and support proxies around the world. Make no mistake about it, the money that was funneled to them—and President Trump spoke about this—was the very money that was used to put American lives at risk. We've had some dozen plus soldiers now killed in this conflict. The money that was provided by President Obama was directly part of the military establishment that created the very risk that took these American lives. We should never forget that it was a failure to believe that somehow you could negotiate with a reasonable, moderate Iranian, but rather that the regime has to be eliminated and most importantly their capability to inflict harm on the world eliminated as well.

Jordan Sekulow: Secretary Pompeo, I want to ask you about NATO because there was the hint yesterday from President Trump, and I understand the tough talk, because of the importance of the Strait of Hormuz really to different parts of the world than the United States. It affects gas prices here, but the actual gas getting to the countries, we're not as dependent on as a country as some of our allies are. This idea that they need to step up too, even if they're not the ones necessarily launching the massive campaigns into Iran to obliterate their nuclear program, they could do more to secure the Strait of Hormuz and make sure that that is fully operational to all legal vessels from around the world. Do you think that when it's that NATO talk, it's more of a push like, "Don't make yourself irrelevant to the world"?

Mike Pompeo: That was my experience with President Trump. He was, in the end, very supportive of NATO, but to have a trusted partner, the partner has to be able to deliver on their commitments. To date, they've shown that their capabilities are incredibly limited. They don't have many ships that they can sail. They have very small air forces. But they have also not shown the will, the temerity, to actually confront the challenges that keep us all at risk. So I think President Trump is urging them. I think he said this last night. He said, "It's never too late to get in it right, seize this." He is urging them to take seriously the threats to their own people and at the very least not to deny us the ability, whether it's airbases or the capacity to use tools that are in their countries to allow us to do this hard work. President Trump is right to be both disheartened and frustrated with them. I hope they will come to understand that taking down the Iranian regime matters to people who live in Paris or London or Brussels and not just the people who live in Tel Aviv or Dubai. What we've done is important for the entire world and our European allies in NATO need to get serious about this challenge as well.

Logan Sekulow: Secretary Pompeo, thank you so much. Before we let you go, this is a holiday weekend for everyone. The most holy week for most of our listenership and supporters here at the ACLJ. Do you have any message to them and those who want peace, those that seek out what's going on, obviously based on the historical and now the significant moment that is this very specific resurrection weekend?

Mike Pompeo: For Christians, this is the most important weekend. We're also headed for Passover as well. What we are reminded of when we see what's taking place is that evil, just as Christ talked about, just as the Bible writes, evil does roam the earth. Christ rose on the third day to save us all. We should make sure that we do the hard work during our time, whether it's our time in duty or our time in service, to make sure that we deliver as much peace on a sustained basis as we possibly can to keep innocents, civilians, children safe and secure. President Trump has done that. As we move into this incredibly sacred and special weekend, we should all pray for the safety of our soldiers who are still sitting in harm's way even on this special set of days.

Logan Sekulow: Thank you so much for joining us, Secretary Pompeo. We always appreciate it. We hope you have a blessed weekend with your family. If you are watching this right now, we are going to keep the conversation going about President Trump's speech to the nation. We are also going to have a lot of different coverage because we're going to have Rick joining us, but we're also taking your phone calls. I want to hear from you. Your thoughts. What did you think about this? We have one line open right now at 1-800-684-3110. But also, I want you to take a minute and think about supporting the work of the ACLJ. If you don't get the second half-hour of the show on your local radio station, we're always available live for free at ACLJ.org, YouTube, Rumble. However you get your podcast, we're there, either live from 12 to 1 p.m. Eastern Time or, of course, archived immediately. So make sure you join us if you can. If you're listening to this even later on, join us live Monday through Friday. It's an excellent experience. If you're on YouTube or Rumble, you get to chat with people. Some with similar, some with different opinions. It's always fun to see their comments in the chat as well. Of course, you can call in. We're back in less than a minute. So don't go anywhere. Go to ACLJ.org. We really would appreciate it. Thank you so much for your support. If you're watching in the chat, let me know where you're watching from. I always love to check that out. We'll be right back.

Narrator: There's a lot happening in America right now. Our values, our faith, our freedoms—they're being challenged in courtrooms and on Capitol Hill. You might feel like you have no say over it, but you make a difference. And right now you can make double the difference. Our legal teams are fighting across the country, defending your rights to speak, pray, and even how to educate your kids. Join the fight. Go to ACLJ.org/double to have your gift doubled today.