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 seeming to be changing their tune?

Will: That's right, Logan. As we saw and as we've talked a lot about 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 Democrat Party which previously had not been so bold. They also 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? Like there was some kind of collusion, if you will.

Will: Only President Trump can collude, Logan. You know that.

Logan Sekulow: Only one party colludes, Will.

Will: Right. 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. 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, and with the governor of New York, Kathy Hochul. All of them have 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: This was from AOC just a few days ago. Protesters took to Queens as they do. It is 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, marching into predominantly Jewish neighborhoods—which 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?" You know why? 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, the new Iranian regime will likely be a little bit friendlier to Israel and a little bit more friendly to the United States? Hopefully, that is the goal. We're going to keep breaking it down. We're going to talk to experts and hear from a lot of people because it is one of those curious cases that things have changed.

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 and that a Jewish homeland exists.

A Jewish homeland, by the way, is home to Christians, Jews, Muslims, Baha'i, and people of all religions or no religion at all. You can be an Israeli and not be Jewish. That's not true outside of many of the other countries in the Middle East where religious persecution is one of the top issues. We have worked directly on that. That's true even in Gaza where there's talk about the Christians there. We've helped those Christians in Gaza. You know where they often escape to? Israel, when they need to.

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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 as many calls as I can. Jeff Ballabon's joining us, head of ACLJ Jerusalem. Jeff, obviously a very interesting and sad weekend. We had a historic synagogue in Mississippi burned. It sounds like a headline from 100 years ago. 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 they feel about time but also feel "why now?" Let's start with that horrendous attack on a place of worship and specifically it being this historic synagogue in a state like Mississippi.

Jeff Ballabon: 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 to be a Jew anywhere in America, unfortunately, and be conspicuously Jewish.

I travel back and forth to Israel quite frequently and 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 and 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: I think a lot of people didn't see it. I sent Will the article a few hours after. For some of us, that's in our algorithm when these things happen. If you're following certain accounts, you'll see this come up. But it made very little news. Thankfully, it doesn't feel like people were injured, so that obviously does lead to that, but you'd think it would pop up a bit more.

At the same time, Jeff, I was on X looking at the Iranian protests that were happening this weekend. 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, 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 the narrative maybe gets shifted. I'm all for her saying that. I did repost it and put "about time." It just feels a little opportunistic in a weird way. 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 also took many hours and there was a lot of criticism 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. Going to an American Jewish community has nothing to do with Israel. Jews in America are American.

This has been happening and people think it's normal. It's become part of the entire background that we work on at ACLJ. It happens at places of work, it happens in universities, and 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.

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, too radical, too crazy, or too evil. 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 is no question about it. He stands for everything anti-Semitic, he hates Israel, and 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. He wouldn't condemn it.

I think they've really 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, have had to react to this because it's so extreme. The Democrats are beginning to reel back on how extreme they've become.

The Mamdani thing is a shock factor and so now people like AOC, who has been leading the charge against Israel and the Jews now for quite a while, have realized that it's gone too far politically for upcoming elections. What we're seeing now is gaslighting. It's not helping the Jews and it's not fighting anti-Semitism; it's pretending that they care when in fact everything their actions have done supports Hamas's agenda here in America.

Will: 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 Hamas directly—not just "globalize the intifada"—going all the way back to Columbia. They were saying leave the students alone that are shouting that they support Hamas. They didn't want 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.

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 Chuck Schumer saying, "Let's be clear, Hamas is a terrorist organization committed to the destruction of Jews while imposing its brutal rule on Palestinians."

Letitia James said, "Hamas is a terrorist organization, we don't support terrorists, period." Governor Kathy Hochul said, "Hamas is a terrorist organization that calls for genocide of Jews." Senator Gillibrand said, "Hamas is a terrorist organization committed to the murder of Jews." It's all coming down from the same talking point. They all posted this within an hour of each other.

This is not an organic reaction to what is horrific; it seems like people got desensitized to it in New York. This is a political operation happening and I would venture to bet that they're being opportunistic because they are seeing some polling numbers that they can exploit. My prediction is they're going to flip it and say look at the Tucker Carlsons and look at the Candace Owenses as they go into these midterms. They are trying to gaslight the American people.

Jeff Ballabon: Tucker has lost any right to call himself conservative. There's nothing conservative about Tucker. I think you're right; 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.

Whether it's the Islamists, the progressives, or this new Tucker faction that call themselves Christian Nationalists but seem to have very little tolerance for Christians in this country, it is all the same. This is clearly coordinated political messaging and it's gaslighting. It's adding insult to injury. This is not protecting the Jews or America; it's further undermining it for political reasons.

It is very frightening that they've decided Hamas is bad enough that we can use them as the bad guy. The other thing this particular faction is going to do is equate the Israeli leadership with Hamas. They're already doing that when Mamdani's saying that he would arrest Bibi if he came into New York. This is trying to recalibrate the narrative in a way that's very dangerous because it's all gaslighting.

These people who support the annihilation of Israel have done it all along. The mood in America is extremely dangerous right now. The fact that people are willing to be violent against institutions and chant for death and murder in our streets against American citizens is something which should alarm all Americans. They happen to be focused on Jews in these cases, 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 in support of ACLJ Jerusalem. 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 your phone calls coming up. We have a full bank. 1-800-684-3110. Some of you have been on hold for close to 40 minutes. We will get to you. I promise. If you want to support the work of the ACLJ and support this show, go to ACLJ.org. It's a great place to find all the incredible free content. If you want to support, a great way to do it is becoming an ACLJ champion. We'll be right back.

Welcome back to Sekulow. We do have two lines open for you at 1-800-684-3110 if you want to speak your mind on what's going on in Iran. We'd like to hear from you. We were talking to Jeff Ballabon about the attacks over the weekend. Mississippi's largest synagogue was burned. We also had interesting messages coming from Democrats who seem to be condemning anti-Semitism for the first time in many years.

Jordan Sekulow is joining us by phone. Jordan, I know you have an update as you are traveling and working on some big cases, so let us know what's going on.

Jordan Sekulow: There's a huge case tomorrow at the Supreme Court of the United States involving this whole sports issue with whether boys can play on girls teams. This issue is really relating to two cases that are combined, one out of Idaho. We're close with the West Virginia Attorney General; that is the main case involving mostly high school sports. That is the crux of sports when it comes to the state level before you get to the collegiate level where the NCAA would be in charge. People might have already thought that this was decided because of moves by President Trump, but 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 basic: if you're a boy, you play on the boys team. If you're a girl, you play on the girls team. There's no crossover. They've taken this now all the way to the Supreme Court. They won at the district court but lost at the appellate court. 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, J.B. McCuskey. His team in West Virginia is leading the charge there. When you talk to people about this whole issue, it's really about kids in sports and safety. It's about protecting women's sports from boys or 18-year-old men who might not be good enough on their men's team but could set all the state records if they decide to be on the women's team.

The Supreme Court now has a chance in a multi-hour oral argument tomorrow to finally make that decision. So many of us who have daughters want to know that Title IX was there to protect them and their sports so that they can play amongst equal athletic ability. It's still very difficult to make those teams in high school.

People might have thought this was over because of executive orders, 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 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 things. We saw them over the weekend, like saying we're going to make credit card interest rates no more than 10%. We saw him say the big corporations can't start buying up single-family homes. Whether you agree or disagree on that, he makes a lot of these big statements and some as you say then get fought out after they are made.

Jordan Sekulow: Right, they get fought out. Remember this initiated with some of the college funding. Now these cases involve elementary, middle, and high school, which is more of what the state controls directly. Colleges and the NCAA have already been implementing their own rules and there was a lot of talk about that with federal funding.

On some of these issues, yes, it's been settled, but it has not been settled yet at the high school or elementary level. This case presents the Supreme Court with the opportunity to finally come down on this. We hope the reason they took the case is a good sign. West Virginia lost on appeal and the Supreme Court decided to take the case knowing that the lower court decision held that you can have these boys play on these girls sports teams.

We're just proud of our alumni and someone we work with very closely still, J.B. McCuskey. His team is literally leading the charge on this case and can settle it for everyone. As someone with two daughters, and Logan you have two daughters as well, this is something that shouldn't even be a discussion. If you're a boy you should play on the boy sports team and if you're a girl you should play on the girl sports team.

We don't need to get into the complications of sexuality or anything like that. This is just about sports and fairness. J.B. McCuskey has been on this broadcast many times over the years. It's important to have ACLJ alumni who work here and get those chops. They know which types of cases to take and how to fight for the people of their state. That still ends up leaving a lasting legacy for the entire country.

Strong conservative lawyers like J.B. who come out of a system like the ACLJ are able to continue to impact the entire country. 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 is pretty easy to do as a lawyer. This is about winning for the right reasons.

The right reasons here are about protecting the other people who play on the team. It is about your daughter and making 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 U.S. Supreme Court. A victory here could 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. People can take politics out of it and just think of the sports aspect. They understand the locker room situation and the testosterone situation.

We will give you updates. It's going to be a long case so we might not have updates 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: We have a second half hour coming up. Thanks, Jordan, for joining us. Jeff Ballabon from ACLJ Jerusalem is going to be joining us. We also have a packed phone bank right now, so we're going to do our best to get to as many of these calls as we possibly can. Stay on hold. If you want to support the work of the ACLJ, ACLJ.org is a great place to do it. We'll be right back.