SEKULOW

Logan Sekulow: Welcome to Sekulow. We got a packed show for you today. And one of the big questions we've been asking is why all of a sudden are people like AOC going to social media and seem to be changing their tune?

Guest (Male): That's right, Logan. As we saw and as we've talked a lot about things like the protests in Iran this week, as they continue to get more bold from the people on the streets there, you're seeing support for the people in the street from members of the Democratic Party, which previously had not been so bold.

But also, they changed their tune on Hamas, on people openly supporting a terrorist organization in the streets of New York. You had almost simultaneously all these members of the left—

Logan Sekulow: Like it was planned or something. Exactly. Like there was some kind of collusion, if you will.

Guest (Male): You can't say that, Logan. Only President Trump can collude. You know that. There's no way anyone else could.

Logan Sekulow: Only one party colludes.

Guest (Male): Right. But this is what's so fascinating because it is the people that said nothing during the protests on Columbia University and how boldly people even then were supporting a foreign terrorist organization, Hamas, in New York.

And you saw people like the mayor, the current mayor now, was unable to even condemn things like "Globalize the Intifada" or say, "I condemn those that are standing with Hamas." Now, all of a sudden, he is joining with AOC, with Chuck Schumer, with the Governor of New York, Kathy Hochul, all of them with very similar messaging like, "Of course they're a terrorist organization. This isn't that hard. We can say this." It's very shocking that it's happening now, but also there has to be a deeper motive.

Logan Sekulow: Yeah. I mean, this was from AOC just a few days ago. Protesters took to Queens, as they do. And look, it's not like this is new that there have been protesters talking about what's going on in Gaza, specifically even Hamas. Protesters in Queens started chanting, "Say it loud, say it clear, we support Hamas here."

AOC reposted that on X and said, "Hey, so marching into predominantly Jewish neighborhoods," by the way, this is probably in her district, I would assume, "and leading with a chant saying we support Hamas is disgusting and an anti-Semitic thing to do. Pretty basic." This is a major change in tune.

Look at the comments on that. Most of them are her supporters saying, "How dare you? You've turned on us. Who got to your account? Who hacked you?" Because even their supporters agree with those protesters, likely.

So what is it? Is it a change in polling numbers? Is there the thought that if you say this about Iran, we know that whatever will be the new Iranian regime will likely be a little bit friendlier to Israel, a little bit more friendly to the United States? Hopefully, that's the goal. Hopefully, you have that as it has been in the past. Maybe that's their thought process. I don't know.

We're going to keep breaking it down. We're going to talk to experts on this. We're going to hear from a lot of people because it is one of those curious cases that things have changed. And with that, the ACLJ has been on the forefront of supporting Israel for decades. Long before it was cool and certainly now that it's not cool, we are still there supporting the state of Israel.

Again, that doesn't mean you agree 100% with anyone's political administration. What that means is you support the right for the country to exist, that a Jewish homeland exists. A Jewish homeland, by the way, that is home to Christians, that is home to Jews, that is home to Muslims, to Baha'i, to people of all religion or no religion at all. You can be an Israeli. It doesn't mean you are Jewish even religious at all.

That's not true really outside of many of the other countries in the Middle East where religious persecution is one of the top issues that we've had. And we've worked directly. That's true even in Gaza where, of course, there's always talk about the Christians in Gaza. We've helped those Christians in Gaza. Often they escape to Israel when they need to.

With that, I want to encourage you to go to ACLJ.org. Support the work that we're doing here. It's not just about this show you hear each and every day. We also have an incredible legal team. We have the best media team and the best legal team because people like you support the work.

It's not coming from major sponsors. It's not coming from major donors even. Yes, there are some major donors. There are people who love this show and love what we do with our legal work. If you're one of those people and you want to be one of those major sponsors, feel free. We'd love to have you.

However, most are people like you, individuals who say, "I can give $25. I can give $75." Maybe I can become a $10 a month ACLJ Champion. I'm encouraging you to do that today at ACLJ.org.

Logan Sekulow: Welcome back to Sekulow. We got two lines still open at 1-800-684-3110. In the next segment, I'm going to try to take absolutely as many calls as I can. I know many of you have been on hold. We will get to you. Just stay on hold.

Jeff Ballabon is joining us, head of ACLJ Jerusalem. Jeff, obviously, a very interesting weekend. A sad weekend, again. We had a historic synagogue in Mississippi burned. It sounds like a headline from a hundred years ago at this point. It doesn't feel like this should be what we're seeing in America.

At the same time, we had some interesting rhetoric coming out of the top Democrats, some in New York City. We'll discuss those because it just feels about time, but also feels like, why now? But let's start at least with that horrendous attack once again on a place of worship and specifically it being this historic synagogue in a state like Mississippi, one that doesn't necessarily need the PR for anti-Semitism.

Jeff Ballabon: Well, people are making much of the fact that this is not the first time that this synagogue was attacked. The synagogue was attacked in the 1960s by the Klan as well. Once again, it's not safe, really, to be a Jew anywhere in America, unfortunately. And to be conspicuously Jewish.

I travel back and forth to Israel quite frequently. From Israel, to Israel, and in the States, I keep on noting that the one terminal at the airport that has direct flights to Israel is the one terminal that since October 7th has had to have a SWAT team outside full-time because even going there is a danger.

Every synagogue is considered to be in danger. Every kosher restaurant, every place Jews congregate is considered to be in danger. This is very painful to see. It's very frightening to see. It's also painful to see that the mainstream media didn't really cover this for the first 24 hours. It wasn't covered at all.

Logan Sekulow: Yeah. I sent Will the article a few hours after. And for some of us, that's in our algorithm, unfortunately, when these things happen. If you're following certain accounts, you'll see this come up. But no, it made very little news about this. Thankfully, it doesn't feel like people were injured or anything like that. That obviously leads to that. But you'd think it would at least pop up a bit more.

At the same time, Jeff, I was on X looking at this. There were the Iranian protests that were happening this weekend, pro-people of Iran. That was great. There are some good things happening in that world. But there was also protests in Queens. People were chanting that they supported Hamas, "Say it loud, say it clear, we support Hamas here."

Then you had a response from AOC, of all people. AOC said, "Hey, so marching into predominantly Jewish neighborhoods and leading with a chant saying we support Hamas is a disgusting and anti-Semitic thing to do. Pretty basic."

This is the kind of thing we would have loved to have had a couple of years ago. It does feel a little too late that now they're in your neighborhood? What happened here? Have polls shifted? It feels like there are these moments where the narrative maybe gets shifted. I'm all for her saying that. I did repost it and put "about time," but it does feel not only a little too late, but it just feels a little opportunistic in a weird way. Again, I don't want to condemn her saying it. I'm happy she's saying it.

Jeff Ballabon: I'm not, honestly. This is gaslighting. There's no question about it. It also took them a long time to react to this. Mamdani, it took him many hours. There was a lot of criticism and complaint that he was being silent when there were pro-Hamas chants.

Let's be very clear. Being pro-Hamas isn't being critical of Israel. And going to an American Jewish community, which has nothing to do with Israel—it's a foreign country—Jews in America are Americans. But this has been happening, and people think it's normal and it's become part of the entire background that we work on at ACLJ.

It happens at places of work. It happens in universities. It happens on the streets. People just walk up to somebody they think is a Jew and start attacking them with whatever the excuse is. It took them a long time, but no. In politics, we talk about the Overton Window, which is that which is acceptable to talk about in politics.

Most things are fine to talk about. Some things are considered too fringe or too radical or too crazy or too evil or too immoral. That window sometimes shifts dramatically. What I think is happening here is that with the election of Mamdani, who is an overt anti-Semite—there's no question about it—he stands for everything anti-Semitic.

He hates Israel. He was very supportive of the whole—he wasn't going to condemn "Globalize the Intifada." What does "Globalize the Intifada" mean? It means enact brutal murder against Jews all over the world. That's what "Globalize the Intifada" means. It doesn't mean anything else. And he wouldn't condemn it.

I think they've realized that his election has so shocked and alarmed people, even the reliable leftists, even groups like the ADL, which claims to be against anti-Semitism but somehow only sees it when it's on the right and never saw it on the left, they've had to react to this because it's so extreme.

The Democrats I think are beginning to reel back on how extreme they've become. The Mamdani thing is a shock factor. So I think now people like AOC, who's been leading the charge against Israel and the Jews for quite a while, I think they've realized that it's gone too far politically for upcoming elections.

So what we're seeing now is gaslighting. It's not helping the Jews. It's not fighting anti-Semitism. It's pretending that they care when, in fact, everything their actions have done until now and continue to do supports Hamas's agenda here in America.

Guest (Male): And Jeff, it's not like this is the first time in New York over the past few years there have been major protests where slogans supporting directly Hamas—not just "Globalize the Intifada," but directly supporting Hamas—going all the way back to Columbia, when they were saying leave the students alone that are shouting that they support Hamas.

Don't send the NYPD there to stop this where they're harassing and targeting Jewish students. This has been going on for years, and they were silent about it. But now it isn't just AOC. This is coordinated. It is a Democratic op that's going on because you have the newly installed Mayor of New York, Mamdani, who said that chants in support of a terrorist organization have no place in our city.

You have AOC. Chuck Schumer: "Let's be clear. Hamas is a terrorist organization committed to the destruction of Jews while imposing its brutal rule on Palestinians." Letitia James: "Hamas is a terrorist organization. We don't support terrorists, period." The Governor, Kathy Hochul: "Hamas is a terrorist organization that calls for genocide of Jews." Senator Gillibrand: "Hamas is a terrorist organization committed to the murder of Jews."

It's the same talking point. They all posted this within an hour of each other. This is not organic reaction to what is horrific but seems like people got desensitized to in New York. This is a political operation happening. I would venture to bet as well that not only are they being opportunistic, not only are they seeing some polling numbers that they can maybe exploit, but my prediction is they're going to flip it and say, "Look at the Tucker Carlsons. Look at the Candace Owenses."

As they go into this midterms, you know who the real anti-Semites are? It's conservatives. It's Tucker Carlson. Don't disagree with that statement. However, they are trying to now, as you said, gaslight the American people.

Jeff Ballabon: Yeah, I would say Tucker has lost any right to call himself conservative. There's nothing conservative about Tucker. But this is—I think you're right. I think they're going to try and point, as they do, to the other side.

By the way, both sides need to be careful about this. Politicizing it doesn't help the Jews, doesn't help America, and doesn't help the war on Judeo-Christian civilization, which all of these guys are fighting the same war.

Whether it's the Islamists or the Progressives or this new Tucker faction that call themselves Christian Nationalists but seems to have very little tolerance for much in the way of Christians and this country. They talk about Judeo-Christianism as blasphemous and satanic. It's all the same.

But this is clearly coordinated political messaging. We're all very familiar with this. This is gaslighting. It's adding insult to injury. This is not protecting the Jews. It's not protecting America. It's further undermining it for political reasons. It's very dangerous and it's very frightening.

The fact that they've decided that under the polling, Hamas is something which is bad enough that we can use them as a bad guy. The other thing they're going to do is this particular faction is going to equate the Israeli leadership with Hamas, which they're already kind of doing in the weeks leading up to this, when Mamdani saying that he would arrest Bibi or others if they came into New York.

This is trying to recalibrate the narrative in a way that's very dangerous because it's all gaslighting. It's all lying to us. These people support the annihilation of Israel. They've done it all along.

So it's a dangerous week from these two parts of the same story, which is the mood in America is extremely dangerous right now. The fact that people are willing to be violent against institutions, arson, other violence, chant for death and murder in our streets against American citizens, is something which should alarm all Americans. The fact that they happen to be focused on Jews in these cases is very alarming obviously to all of us who care about that, but don't forget they are very much hostile to Christian America as well.

Logan Sekulow: That's right, Jeff. Thank you so much for joining us. Always great to have your work and support of ACLJ Jerusalem. Again, when you support the work of the ACLJ, you support people like Jeff in the offices that we have there and making sure that we are supportive of not just the Israeli people, but the Jewish people here in America as well.

With that, we're going to take a lot of your phone calls coming up. We have a full bank. One line open actually. 1-800-684-3110. Get in line. Some of you have been on hold for close to 40 minutes. We will get to you. I promise. Stay on hold. We'll be right back with more on Sekulow. If you want to support the work of the ACLJ and support this show, go to ACLJ.org.

Logan Sekulow: Welcome back to Sekulow. We do have two lines open for you at 1-800-684-3110. If you want to speak your mind and your thoughts on what's going on in Iran, we'd like to hear from you. We'll be talking to Jeff Ballabon at ACLJ Jerusalem about the attacks over the weekend. Mississippi's largest synagogue was burned.

We also had a lot of interesting messages coming from Democrats actually seem to be condemning anti-Semitism for the first time in what feels like many years. Maybe they got some poll numbers back. We'll discuss that as well.

Jordan is joining us, my brother Jordan Sekulow joining us by phone, executive director here. Jordan, I know you got an update as you are traveling on the road working on some big cases. So let us know what's going on.

Jordan Sekulow: Yeah, so there's a huge case tomorrow at the Supreme Court of the United States involving this whole sports issue with, "Can boys play on girls' teams?" This issue is really relating to, basically, starting even one of the cases—it's two cases that are combined.

One out of Idaho. We're close, of course, with the West Virginia Attorney General. That's the main case. That's a case involving mostly high school sports, which is the crux of sports anyways when it comes to the state level before you get to the collegiate level where the NCAA would be the one in charge of all those kind of decisions.

People might have already thought that this was kind of decided because of some other moves by President Trump, but in fact, it's still being fought out. It's been fought out for four or five years.

West Virginia has the case that just says it's just basic. If you're a boy, you play on the boys' team. If you're a girl, you play on the girls' team. And there's no crossover. They've taken this now all the way to the Supreme Court. They won at the district court, lost at the appellate court.

So now the Supreme Court has the ability to settle this once and for all for the entire country. I'm really proud of our Attorney General, who's an ACLJ alumni, Patrick Morrisey, and his team in West Virginia leading the charge there to finalize this.

I think that really, Logan, when you talk to people about this whole issue, it's even past this trans politics issue. It's really about kids in sports and safety, and especially women's sports and protecting women's sports from boys or men—and in some cases men, 18-year-olds—who might not be good enough or weren't the best on their men's team but could be the greatest and set all the state records if they decide to be on the women's team. And all the issues that involve injuries that involves.

Once and for all, the Supreme Court now has a chance before it in a multi-hour oral argument tomorrow to finally make that decision, which I know for so many of us who have children, especially daughters, want to know that Title IX was there to protect them and their sports so that they can play those sports amongst themselves, amongst equal athletic ability.

It's still very difficult to make those teams even in high school. You have to be a great athlete. But again, people might have thought this was over because of executive orders and other kind of decisions statements by states and presidents, but in fact, most of these laws have been stopped by lower courts. This is the chance for the Supreme Court to put an end to this, hopefully, once and for all, which seems crazy that we're even having to argue it in 2026.

Logan Sekulow: I think you bring up an interesting point because President Trump has certainly been one of those presidents that will make some big statements and will call for a lot of things. We saw them over the weekend.

We saw even things like we're going to make credit card interest rates no more than 10%. We saw big corporations can't start buying up single-family homes like they've been doing. Whether you agree or disagree on that, I think we can have a whole different discussion on what the looks like and whether the legalities are. But he makes a lot of these big statements, and some of them can happen, but some, as you say, then get fought out after those are made.

Jordan Sekulow: Right, they get fought out after. And remember, this initiated with some of the college funding. Now these cases involve elementary and high school and middle school. So more of what the state controls directly. Colleges and the NCAA have already been implementing their own rules.

There was a lot of talk about that with federal funding tied to it. So on some of these issues, yes, it's been settled, but it has not been settled yet at the high school level and even at the elementary level. I think that this case presents the Supreme Court—that's why they're taking two hours with it tomorrow—the opportunity to finally say, and we hope the reason they took the case, which again, West Virginia lost on appeal, so the Supreme Court decided to take the case, knowing that the lower court decision that held would say no, you can't have these boys play on these girls' sports teams.

That they took the case, that's always a good sign. It doesn't mean you're guaranteed a win, but we're just proud of our alumni and someone we work with very closely still at the ACLJ with the West Virginia Attorney General's office and his Solicitor General and their whole team, that they are literally leading the charge on this case.

They know the arguments to make to win. I think that's what we do at the ACLJ. It's not just about getting controversial cases. That's pretty easy to do as a lawyer. You can go and find controversial clients. This is about winning for the right reasons.

The right reasons here are not to be nasty to people who may be going through some problems in high school or even lower or whatever their parents are pushing on them. It's about protecting the other people who play on the team.

Your daughter, that makes sure that if they're at the top level, they're the ones that can set the records. They're not going to have some 18-year-old boy decide he's going to be a girl for next year and set state records that can never be beaten again. This is about righting a short-term wrong in our country that has just been ridiculous. West Virginia brought the case for West Virginians, but it's made its way all the way to the US Supreme Court.

With a victory here, they will again set the stage for the future so that this is no longer an issue. I think that's where the majority of the country is. I think most people think, and take your politics out of it, and just think about the sports aspect.

They understand the locker room situation. They understand the strength situation, the testosterone situation. They get it. So we will give you updates. It's going to be a long case, so we might not have updates from the case on the show until Thursday. If we do get some updates while the show's going on tomorrow, we'll try to get them to you.

Logan Sekulow: That's right, Jordan. Thank you so much for joining us. Always great to have your work. Jordan is traveling. But Jeff Ballabon of ACLJ Jerusalem is going to be joining us. We also have a packed phone bank right now.

We're going to do our best to get to as many of these calls as we possibly can. So stay on hold if you're on hold. If you want to support the work of the ACLJ, ACLJ.org is a great place to do it. Find all the incredible free content. But of course, if you want to support, a great way to do it is by becoming an ACLJ Champion, someone who gives on a monthly basis. We'll be right back.