SEKULOW

Logan Sekulow: On today's show, we've got an update out of New York City as Mayor Mandani has to respond to the anti-Semitic attacks on the streets.

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Logan Sekulow: Welcome back to Sekulow. We are wrapping up our Defend the Defenseless week, so I want you to be a part of that today at ACLJ.org. Phone lines are open at 1-800-684-3110. It’s an all too common start to this show. We are once again reporting about another anti-Semitic attack that happened on the streets of New York City.

This, of course, comes after days and days of the mayor calling out specifically trying to get people to the streets to protest Benjamin Netanyahu and calling for the arrest of Benjamin Netanyahu, creating a very big struggle in the second most populated Jewish area in the world, which is New York City.

This happened on the Upper West Side, I believe, around 1:30 yesterday. Again, it's an area that has a large Jewish population and a large Jewish population that we would say—and I hate the way they put it—it's like publicly-facing Jewish. They're wearing a yarmulke or they are wearing things that would let people know that they are Jewish and they're religious.

A man approached two different people, a Jewish man and an Asian man, and stabbed them while yelling "Allahu Akbar." Currently, has the person been detained? I believe so.

Will: Yes, the person's been detained.

Logan Sekulow: The person's been detained. They're talking about what it is. The mayor had to respond. Of course, this is on a Jewish holiday as well, a Jewish holiday really of mourning of the destruction of the temples. At this moment, this is what's happening again on the streets of Manhattan.

The mayor put out a statement at first saying, "Hey, this can't happen to our Jewish brothers and sisters," and by the end saying they're evaluating whether it's a hate crime and maybe it's just a mental health issue, as if that's not hopefully one and the same.

Will: Once again, when you look at the statements, and I analyzed directly from last Saturday to today what the mayor himself has been saying for a week now—and really since he became a public figure—when you look at the timeline, we're going to break this down for you in the next segment so you can hear exactly the words leading up to this attack yesterday from the Mayor of New York.

Logan Sekulow: Which didn't come until about 6:30 last night.

Will: And how this builds. Even if you say in that statement that you said he had to respond, he said, "I have been briefed on today's horrific stabbings on the Upper West Side. According to witnesses and victim statements, the perpetrator yelled 'Allahu Akbar' during both attacks. The NYPD's initial investigation suggests that mental health may have been a factor."

No kidding. Here's the problem: He's trying to say that as though it weren't an individual yelling "Allahu Akbar" and attacking a Jewish person, as if it was just mental health and not a religiously motivated anti-Semitic attack. Here's the problem: When you use the rhetoric he's been using all week now, going after Benjamin Netanyahu, and then at the end of the week says, "We looked into it, we can't do anything about this."

He may—and I don't believe it—but he may still differentiate Bibi Netanyahu from Jewish people worldwide, but crazy people don't. When you force for a week "architect of genocide, war criminal, we're going to do everything we can," and then the day before this attack throw up your hands and say, "We looked into it, we can't do anything, maybe the federal government can," crazy people do crazy things.

Logan Sekulow: That's right. Again, in a city that needs to protect its Jewish citizens and a city that needs to protect everyone, but has fallen into chaos. Look, again, it's a place that I love. It's a place that I travel to probably most frequently outside of the state of Florida. I'm probably in New York City more than anywhere else in the world.

I love that city. I've lived there. I want to see it thriving. One of the most refreshing parts of being there, by the way, is to see a thriving diverse community and a very safe Jewish community. But now the times, they are changing. Phone lines are open at 1-800-684-3110. We're going to have special video presentations coming up a little bit later as well. As we are in Defend the Defenseless week, we haven't talked a lot about our pro-life work, but we'll show you some more coming up.

We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Those are the words of our forefathers written in the Declaration of Independence. They are the cornerstone on which our constitutional republic was built.

Over the past 250 years, we have formed a great nation. A nation the world has looked to for guidance, for support, and for protection. This month we celebrate our liberty, but that liberty is fragile and requires every American to defend it. That's why this month we've launched the ACLJ Liberty Drive.

In honor of America's birthday, we're redoubling our commitment to continue fighting against any attacks that would strip us of that freedom. We owe it to our forefathers. You can join the fight right now through our ACLJ Liberty Drive. Go to ACLJ.org/Liberty today and have your tax-deductible gift doubled, dollar for dollar, to enable the ACLJ to fight to defend our God-given liberty.

Jordan Sekulow: 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 continuing our coverage of what's happening in New York City as anti-Semitism is clearly on the rise. It's not just anti-Semitism now; we're talking about real violence. Look, we've seen people murdered. Yesterday we saw two people stabbed while the perpetrator was yelling "Allahu Akbar."

At the same time, the mayor of the city is calling to take to the streets to protest Benjamin Netanyahu's appearance in America coming up in September. We also know Prime Minister Netanyahu will be in town or in the states later this week for Lindsey Graham's memorial service. This is all happening at the same time as he's calling for this.

As Will said, you could disagree with the politics or the war of the Netanyahu administration. Guess who also disagrees with that? A huge chunk of the people who live in Israel, just like a huge chunk of the people that live here don't support President Trump. That doesn't make them any less American, any less Jewish if they are Israeli, any less Israeli if they don't support who is in their political power.

It doesn't mean we have to agree with them, but it doesn't make them any less of their own people. What the problem is, is the American people and really people outside of just the Jewish culture—this is on the conservative side, this is on the liberal side—have not been able to differentiate somehow, or they play ignorance, that they can't differentiate between a political regime that they disagree with and all people of a certain ethnicity, background, and race.

If you want to know why the Jewish people have had issues over the years, you're looking at it right square in the eye right now if you don't see this as a problem. The mayor just simply doesn't seem to really get it. It doesn't matter if there's a firebomb outside of his house. It doesn't matter if people are on the streets causing violence.

It doesn't matter if they're bullying Jewish people in the streets because they are outwardly Jewish, because they're wearing a yarmulke or tzitzit or anything like this. New York used to be the place, up until very recently, where you probably could see the most proud and loud Jewish culture outside of Israel.

Now a lot of that has moved to South Florida. Why? Because they feel safe there. Because they have a governor there, they have mayors there that protect their communities. They're able to build bigger communities, and sadly we've seen a lot of them abandon New York City. When you look at the way this timeline rolls out, it is very, very clear what happens when you start spreading this kind of message.

Will: Well, and I think as you brought up, Logan, take two seconds on X or on Facebook or Instagram and any social platform and you understand that it is a dog whistle for racists, for anti-Semites. When you start talking about Bibi Netanyahu or Israel, they equate that with Jewish people globally. You have to be ignorant to not understand that at this point.

But here's the timeline of the mayor targeting Bibi Netanyahu, which he would probably claim, "Of course, I'm not talking about all people." He knows exactly what he's doing and like I said, you would have to be a fool to not understand that at this point. Saturday, July 18th, just last Saturday, New York Times, the interview dropped with the Mayor of New York in which he said, "I believe that Prime Minister Netanyahu belongs in The Hague.

He's a war criminal who has been charged by the International Criminal Court. Whatever the law allows me to do in New York City, that's what I will do." He's already priming the crazies by saying, "I'm going to get something done as long as the law allows me to." Instead of this going away, he fixated on it for the entire week up until this point.

On Monday at a press conference, yes, he was asked about it because he brought it up on that interview, but he spent a long amount of time at this press conference that was supposed to be about business licenses, something that a mayor should do. Here's what he said on Monday, July 20th about Benjamin Netanyahu: "He is subject to this arrest warrant for alleged crimes against humanity, for war crimes, and he is the architect of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza as Israel's Prime Minister."

Now he's broadening it out. He's talking about Israel because he is the Prime Minister, he's the architect of genocide, crimes against humanity. "These are not facts of my personal assessment; they are facts of public record." He is being judge and jury here. He is convicting someone. That's not the way the law works in America where you're innocent until proven guilty, but he is convicting Bibi Netanyahu in the court of public opinion there.

Then he reiterates this line, very important: "What I've also made clear is my administration will follow all applicable laws." That's on Monday. Tuesday, now many days from his statement on Saturday, he says this in a video posted on X. Everyone saw it: "Benjamin Netanyahu is a war criminal, the architect of a horrific genocide against the Palestinian people.

He is responsible for killing more than 73,000 people. The list goes on. All as we Americans pay for the bombs that do that killing." Now he's putting it on you. You as an American are complicit in genocide. That's what he's saying in this video on X on Tuesday. Then he goes on to say, after putting it on you the American: "It's also clear we do not have independent legal authority to enforce this warrant."

His hands are tied; he can't do anything, but the federal government does. He then goes on to say, "While we cannot end the genocide on our own, we can decide whether our silence will become another weapon," calling people to action in his own city. Then on Wednesday, he puts out a statement wishing a peaceful Tisha B'Av to the Jewish New Yorkers across the five boroughs. From sundown tonight until tomorrow, mourners will pause to reflect on the history and resiliency of the Jewish people.

Logan Sekulow: When this attack happened, it wasn't in a vacuum. It was also on a day of mourning for the Jewish people, on a holy day. By the way, a holy day that marks the destruction of the first and second temples we are talking about. Okay? Something that they probably don't even want to pretend happened or existed. They're talking about again, more of any of the Jewish holidays, this becomes probably the most Israeli holiday.

Will: Right. And then what happened yesterday, Thursday, July 23rd? A statement on X from the mayor: "I've been briefed on today's horrific stabbings. According to witnesses and victims, the perpetrator yelled 'Allahu Akbar' during both attacks. The NYPD's initial investigation suggests that mental health may have been a factor."

What also could have been a factor? Your rhetoric. Making this for an entire week the national focus on Bibi Netanyahu and Israelis. How you built it up and said, "All as we Americans pay for the bombs that do the killing," and then says, "We cannot end the genocide on our own, we can decide whether our silence will become another weapon." He enabled this horrific attack yesterday.

Logan Sekulow: He's also calling for protests around the UN General Assembly in September when Bibi Netanyahu is here. I think people need to hear directly from the mayor. There are a couple of different clips we can play, but I think one yesterday when asked, should people go protest when he's in town? Let's hear bite seven.

Mayor Mandani: I think one of the bedrocks of our city is protest. It is something that has been a part of what makes our city so special, that New Yorkers can express themselves whether they are in support or in opposition, no matter on whatever topic. And I've always said that when we respect our Constitution, we also respect our First Amendment.

Logan Sekulow: He has to remember who he is now, which is the Mayor of New York City, not an activist figure in the streets. He’s not one of the protesters. He can go out and he still has his First Amendment rights and can say whatever he wants. But remember, you're leading the biggest city in the world. Maybe you should start acting like it. I'm sure the NYPD are thrilled that you are calling for people to take to the streets when he's in town.

Will: Specifically, we have statements that have been reported. This is from the president of the NYPD Police Benevolent Association, a non-profit police organization, that says: "The mayor's activist posturing puts police officers on the street in a terrible position. Protests during the UN General Assembly are nothing new, but when the mayor of the city is actively calling for demonstrations, violent agitators will assume they have permission to cause as much havoc as possible."

Logan Sekulow: Look what happened in Southern California. Look at what happens when you call these protests to happen and the city almost puts their stamp of approval on it. You see a lot more violence. You see a lot more destruction, fireworks, explosive devices, and smoke bombs. Then, of course, you have to have the response.

The response ends up looking worse than the actual protest because you have the NYPD or maybe it's the LAPD having to clear out certain areas to make sure streets are moving. You've created more and more chaos already in a time when there is chaos happening, when the UN General Assembly is meeting, where blocks are already being blocked off just purely for security and safety of those attending, even in a non-controversial year.

Will: The New York Post even got quotes from people that are within the NYPD saying: "Cops just came off a crazy six weeks between the Knicks and the World Cup working long hours every day. And now he's going to subject them to unnecessary problems? Mandani is nothing more than a cheap politician looking for cheap headlines."

As we said earlier in the week, if he had been focusing all week on this business licensing issue and showing like, look, we're going to make it easier for people to earn a living in New York City, we'd actually be saying, "That's what a mayor should do." Instead, he's been fixating on Bibi Netanyahu and causing people that may have mental health issues to do crazy things by attacking individuals. Global issues have nothing to do with the safety and security of New York City.

Jordan Sekulow: 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: We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Those are the words of our forefathers written in the Declaration of Independence. They are the cornerstone on which our constitutional republic was built.

Over the past 250 years, we have formed a great nation. A nation the world has looked to for guidance, for support, and for protection. This month we celebrate our liberty, but that liberty is fragile and requires every American to defend it. That's why this month we've launched the ACLJ Liberty Drive.

In honor of America's birthday, we're redoubling our commitment to continue fighting against any attacks that would strip us of that freedom. We owe it to our forefathers. You can join the fight right now through our ACLJ Liberty Drive. Go to ACLJ.org/Liberty today and have your tax-deductible gift doubled, dollar for dollar, to enable the ACLJ to fight to defend our God-given liberty.

Welcome back to Sekulow. I want to take some calls actually before we go to that special video presentation. Hold that for a minute now, just because so many of you are watching and seeing this update of what's coming out of New York City. We're talking about it at length today because I do think it's important when we start taking this more serious approach to what the streets of New York, and really the streets of America, look like.

When you have rhetoric that comes out of the right and the left, both of them are focused on one issue. You have Democrats that don't feel like they can be Democrats anymore because of the stance that the liberals have taken on Israel, but not even just Israel, what feels like on the Jewish people.

Then you have the exact same thing now happening in the right where there are conservatives who go, "I don't know what I'm supposed to do now because all the people I've followed for years have now turned their back on the Jewish people." What happens is this: actual violence in the streets. Every generation has had their issues with anti-Semitism. Every hundred years, if we go back to probably the beginning of time, there has been this.

Those of us with Jewish ancestry, whether it's our parents, our grandparents, our great-grandparents, so on and so on, have heard the stories. What we all kind of blindly thought was maybe we were going to be finally immune to it. Then this is what happens. You have a moment three years ago where there's a major attack on Israel. Israel responds, and I'll say, they respond aggressively.

So then people are upset with the way they respond. I can respect that you disagree with the way that they responded. I don't agree with it, but I can at least say that's your political opinion. But somehow that turns into, "Let's kill the Jewish people in the streets." Let's attack them in the streets of New York during Jewish holidays on some of the most important days of the year.

Let's go find people that are actively openly Jewish—and I hate that that's even a thing—where it says you can't wear your Star of David, you can't wear a yarmulke, you can't do all of the things you do because it's your religious beliefs. Somehow it gets swept under the rug. It takes the Mayor of New York City, who's been calling and probably really one of the reasons this is all happening, six hours to respond to put out a statement that looks like it's AI-generated.

It was carefully crafted not to anger his base of anti-Semites by saying, "You know, it could be that there's extremism, it could be that we've pushed people to this, or it could just be this guy had a mental health breakdown." Either way, again, as if those are not one and the same when you're yelling these kind of things.

Will: Well, and I think that's also, it should be something that offends a lot of people when the statement is: "The NYPD's initial investigation suggests that a mental health may have been a factor." Because there's mental health issues in this country. There's a mental health crisis for a lot of people, especially in a post-COVID world, right?

There's a lot of these things that rise up. You know what? People that have a mental health issue does not necessarily mean every person in that category is going to go kill people on a holiday. That should be offensive to a lot of Americans that may struggle with depression or things of that nature and say, "Oh, you're just saying he had a mental health problem and that's your excuse?" No, he was a crazy person. There's a difference. There's a difference here.

He was incited because he's been seeing all of this in your city. And you know what? It's been going on even before you were the mayor and we've been calling it out and trying to fight against it because what did they do on Columbia University's campus? They were blocking people who were Jewish from going to class. They were intimidating them.

Not because they were walking around saying "I support Bibi Netanyahu," because they were Jewish. There is not a distinction in the eyes of the anti-Semite between Bibi Netanyahu and a kid trying to go to class in Columbia University.

Logan Sekulow: We've taken some of those to court and the ACLJ team is there for them when they need us. However, those are long drawn out processes. I wish it was faster, I wish we could have answers very quickly, and sometimes you get an apology, sometimes you get some kind of settlement, but often times this takes time.

We got a question or comment coming in, a lot of them are coming in right now and we got a few phone lines open at 1-800-684-3110. I want to take Kathy, who is an ACLJ champion calling in Indiana. Go ahead, Kathy.

Kathy: Can I ask a crazy question? Is there any way that either we can sue Mandani to shut up or have him impeached or removed from office? This is getting to be ridiculous. He's causing major insight or insurrection in this country.

Logan Sekulow: Yeah, Kathy, he is causing a lot of issues. I don't disagree with you. Now, can he be removed from office? I'm sure there is a process for that, but simply put, you're not a New Yorker, I'm not a New Yorker. It's not our decision. The New Yorkers, if you probably looked at the polls, they love him. He's a dynamic speaker, and he is.

He's a gifted speaker. I'm not going to take that away from him. So was Barack Obama, so was Bill Clinton, so were a lot of people who I probably disagreed with their policies. They're gifted and dynamic speakers and they can get a base excited. This, sadly, is what his base wants him to do, including, by the way, a probably large Jewish population in New York City, maybe on the side that's not as religious or that wants to support Mayor Mandani.

The term is four years. Could you see a massive turn in New York? I think you could. I think you could see a really big response, but you’ve got three years now to deal with this. The chaos on the streets is going to continue to rise unless the mayor himself understands the damage he's doing.

My hope is there is that part of him that right now is just a young mayor excited for the job who wants to just get his base excited, so he's willing to do anything, including incite violence against one of the bigger populations in his city. And maybe after the fifth stabbing or shooting or murdering or protest that turns violent, or the next bomb that goes off in front of his house—which by the way, already almost happened.

I was there when they threw it at the front of Gracie Mansion. It happened. And still, he gets on and he bloviates and he does these statements and it grows and grows and grows.

Will: Once again, this isn't even a situation where you can say he doesn't even know what he's talking about, or that he genuinely does just want to target Bibi Netanyahu and not Jewish people around the world. We know for a fact how he ran. Remember as people were yelling "Globalize the Intifada," he ignored the questions for a very long time.

He would not answer "Will you condemn this phrase?" Because what does "Globalize the Intifada" mean? It means terror everywhere against Jews. That's what that means in plain English. If you are globalizing the Intifada, which was terrorism by Palestinians against Jewish people, Jewish civilians in Israel, if you are globalizing that, you mean take it everywhere against innocent civilians that are Jewish.

He refused to condemn it and then finally, when it got real close to election day, he said, "I will discourage the term." He knows exactly what he's doing. This isn't something where he can claim ignorance. He knows what he's doing and he's been doing it since last Saturday in full view because he was getting great press about this—for him.

And what did it lead to? It led to someone committing anti-Semitic violence on a very somber day.

Logan Sekulow: And I'd be willing to bet this is just the one we know about. There's plenty more happening. Phone lines are open for you. I want to hear from you. We’ve got a second half hour coming up. We do have some special video presentations I want to run because it is the end of Defend the Defenseless week, which is highlighting our fight for the unborn and for those who defend them when they come under attack.

We want to make sure we're there for them. These fights don't end today, they didn't end with Dobbs, they didn't end with the overturning of Roe. Your gift is doubled today to keep our fight going now at the state level. Go to ACLJ.org/Defend.

We’ve got a second half hour coming up and I want you to be a part of it. So join us, whether you can join us on ACLJ.org live from 12:00 to 1:00 PM Eastern time, on however you get your podcast, YouTube, Rumble, or archived as soon as we're done. We'll be right back with more on Sekulow in less than a minute.

Over the past 250 years, we have formed a great nation. A nation the world has looked to for guidance, for support, and for protection. This month we celebrate our liberty, but that liberty is fragile and requires every American to defend it. That's why this month we've launched the ACLJ Liberty Drive.

In honor of America's birthday, we're redoubling our commitment to continue fighting against any attacks that would strip us of that freedom. We owe it to our forefathers. You can join the fight right now through our ACLJ Liberty Drive. Go to ACLJ.org/Liberty today and have your tax-deductible gift doubled, dollar for dollar, to enable the ACLJ to fight to defend our God-given liberty.