Sekulow

Logan Sekulow: We got breaking news. Articles of impeachment formed against Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Announcer: Keeping you informed and engaged now more than ever. This is Seculo. We want to hear from you. Share and post your comments or call 1800-684-3110. And now your host Logan Seculo.
Logan Sekulow: Welcome to Seculo. Phone lines are open for you 1800-684-3110. Covering a lot of things, but number one is the breaking news item that articles of impeachment have been filed against Secretary of War Pete Hegseth. Secretary Hegseth went on a press conference this morning, had a lot to say about it. As you can imagine, not thrilled. And who filed these articles of impeachment? Of course, outgoing friend of the administration, Republican who is it, Will? Thomas Massie. Thomas Massie, of course, decided on the way out the door, I am going to decide to push and push and push. And this time, instead of filing it against President Trump, which would actually maybe taken some guts, decided to file it against Pete Hegseth. And again, a very stunt-like maneuver coming here at the end. But again, no less painful, I'm sure. If you are Pete Hegseth in the administration, as I've said before, they may be able to weaponize and use the political nature of impeachment now, lower the bar of impeachment, start doing this. It doesn't make the process any easier, even if you know the outcome. And who knows what the outcome will be now, now that we have had such a drastic shift in the House and Senate. Now we do know they haven't necessarily hit that threshold to remove someone or to break the filibuster or whatever it may be. But it's still a a painful experience. And of course, they're pushing back on it saying this is due to a lot of issues with is it war with the war in Iran.
Will Addison: Well, and here's the thing I want to get into. We'll We'll break it all down for you. We'll tell you what each of the eight articles are in the next segment. But at the end of the day, here's what article one is, right? This is from the the resolution here from Thomas Massie going against who is it? Pete Hegseth. Article one, waging war in contravention of the War Powers Resolution of 1973 Section 2C. So that's related to the war in Iran. That if if he was being honest, would be against President Trump, the commander in chief. So Secretary Massie, not Secretary Massie, Congressman Massie here, outgoing congressman, is honestly taking a coward's way out by not calling out who actually would be responsible for waging the war in Iran, and that would be the president of the United States. If he really wanted to do impeachment and make a statement, he would go after who he thinks who is responsible for it, the president, the commander in chief. Instead, he's going after the Secretary of War, Secretary of Defense, who is a subordinate of the commander in chief, carrying out the wishes of the commander in chief. But no, instead he takes what he thinks is the easy political win. And it's it's frankly pretty disgusting to see happen.
Logan Sekulow: That's right. I want to hear from you. Phone lines are open. When you hear these kind of news immediately following the midterm elections, knowing what we're going to be up against, then now you have the articles of impeachment formed against. Look, Pete Hegseth has been someone who has been recently We can there's nothing wrong about this. Recently talking about will he be, you know, still the Secretary of War for this next portion of the administration after you had President Trump on 60 minutes say, you know, I'm definitely going to be shifting some things, but I like him. He did put out a statement. President Trump said Pete Hegseth gets an A plus plus plus for his defense against a disgruntled, angry, defeated former congressman Thomas Massie, a total loser from President Donald J. Trump. And of course, look, I think there is that. What may protected his job? They have been defiance of someone like Thomas Massie. Cuz when Thomas Massie, you know, comes for the attack, I think President Trump is not someone who is going to easily back down to that. So you know what, Pete Hegseth may be in just a small way able to think because I don't know if President Trump really cares or would love to do the exact opposite of what a Thomas Massie would push for. And you know what, there may be times I agree with President Trump, times I disagree with President Trump. I'm with him on this one. Phone lines are open for you at 1800-684-3110. 1800-684-3110. Again, the ACLJ is not backing down. We're standing strong, and I want you to stand strong with us. Start stand strong challenge. Be a part of it today. Go to aclj.org. All donations throughout the month are doubled. Every gift doubled dollar for dollar. The work is more critical than ever. We've actually filed more than 20 briefs in federal court over the last few days, and we're going to talk about that when we get back. So don't go anywhere. I have a big list here of all things we've done recently, and we'll get into that and work of the ACLJ in just a moment.
Guest (Male): Across our nation, the principles that have shaped America for generations are being attacked. The lives of innocent, unborn babies are still in jeopardy in numerous states across the country. Our education system is being hijacked as the left tries to strip parents of their god-given rights to decide where and what their children are taught. And religious liberty is under attack, especially for Christians. It's moments like these when the temptation to give up grows stronger. But that's exactly when you have to decide, will I stand firm or will I just watch the waves tear away at our foundations? We need people who understand that religious liberty isn't just a political talking point. It's our god-given right. The stakes are higher than ever, but we are not helpless, and we will not back down. Go to aclj.org/stand right now and have your tax-deductible gift doubled to stand with the ACLJ 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 ACLJs. 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 Seculo. We are talking about the big news really. And again, it shouldn't be laughed at. This is a real moment here where you have Pete Hegseth now having articles of impeachment filed against him. Secretary of War, former Secretary of Defense if you well, but Secretary of War and against and from Thomas Massie, outgoing primaried representative of the United States. But of course, somebody who has had a vendetta against a lot of the administration over the last few months, someone who has been a pretty raging anti-Semite, I feel like for a good portion of his his career. You gave me a
Will Addison: No, I mean it it it's I'm glad that we soon will no longer have to listen to Thomas Massie or hear about him because he's going to be out of a job. But I think he 's going to try to run for president or something like that, and this is part of that, that launching of this. And and it's so frustrating when you read through these articles of impeachment, a 37-page document. And in really most of them, if he were being honest, but he knows he can't politically because a lot of his base is actually a fan of President Trump, would be actually trying to impeach President Trump. And so here's what these eight articles are. Now in the actual resolution, it's like article one, waging war in contravention of the War Powers Resolution of 1973 Section 2C. I'm going to give it in more plain English. So instead of then you having us to go look up the statute and tell you what the statute is, what the meat of what he's saying is the high crime or misdemeanor here. And that's article one, starting the war with Iran without congressional authorization, which once again he was doing at the direction of the president. So that would be the president doing high crimes and misdemeanors, not the necessarily the Secretary of War here. Article two, defying Congress's vote to end the Iran war. Article three would be is in reference to continuing the Iran war beyond a legal deadline. Article four is related to the the incident where the school that was placed on the IRGC base that was hit by a missile because of outdated intelligence, saying his side stepping laws to prevent civilian deaths. Now if you were to look at any law of war while those tragedies happen, that was not an intentional targeting of a civilian target. Article five is related to the extrajudicial drug boat killing. So those are the cartels and and other boats that are being hit in the ocean. Article six is related to when he pushed back on Senator Kelly's don't follow illegal orders ad and tried to go after some of his rank and things of that nature. Then and I think of all of these, that's the only one that truly would fall under only the Secretary of Defense because that was kind of some of the things he was doing as as the head of the the Secretary of Defense obviously. Then article seven, kidnapping a foreign leader. That's related to the Maduro. The taking of him when there was
Logan Sekulow: Largely praised.
Will Addison: Largely praised also at the direction of the president saying, hey, there's a warrant for him. Send in our military and go get him. So once again, is that the high crime and misdemeanor of the Secretary of War or is it of the President of the United States in Thomas Massie's opinion? Then article eight is starting an unauthorized war in Yemen is what it's related to. And that's specifically the the trading of fire with the Houthi rebels. Once again, you're looking at this and it's like is anyone really one, upset that we're taking out Houthi rebels? Two, the other angle to that is that they've been firing on shipping lanes. So is that really a is it a defensive maneuver of targeting Houthis or is it starting a war? So all of this to say is one, you take the majority of these whether or not you are more libertarian minded like he is. Go back to, I mean, Vietnam, go to the war in Iraq, the war in Afghanistan, go to any of the action by Bill Clinton or Barack Obama. You could frame any of the actions that they use the military with to fit almost
Logan Sekulow: And much more egregiously.
Will Addison: not exactly all of them, but six out of eight you could do.
Logan Sekulow: Yeah, I mean I think many of these are ones that we easily forget. And I think there's a bite we'll pull up where he kind of listed them including, you know, the Chinese spy balloon that we forgot about that you know everyone sort of moved on from. I think you know only fairly we pull that up. We should hear from Thomas Massie himself. He did talk about this. So let's hear the bite 23.
Thomas Massie: What I what one of the things that I really want out of this is to litigate whether Congress has war powers or not. Like this is I've got Republican colleagues who know I'm right on this. They're worried about the politics of it. And what we what I'm really trying to do here with some of these articles is litigate three three provisions of the War Powers Resolution and have other have other folks violated them as well. Yeah, not not as blatantly or as egregiously as Pete Hegseth. But somebody's got to put their foot down and say, are we going to follow the laws that are on the books? Are we going to follow the Constitution? And the best way to do that is to have an impeachment against Pete Hegseth.
Logan Sekulow: What an absurd reasoning behind how you're going to have an impeachment. The best way to do that, are we going to follow the Constitution? Are we going to you know we got to put our foot down somewhere. And this is where you've decided again definitely a political move.
Thomas Massie: Well, and once again, I go back to where I think that that he's using cowardice here. Now if you really want to litigate the separation of powers in this country, congressman Massie, why are you going after the Secretary of War here? If you want to litigate the separation of powers between Congress and the United in the the executive branch, the president of the United States, because a unitary executive is what the Constitution prescribes that branch of government is the president, not his his cabinet members, not those he appoints and get confirmed. He is the executive branch. If you truly believe in what you say here, I really want this to to litigate whether Congress has war powers or not. Litigating it is not the purpose of impeachment. But if really if you're saying that the War Powers Resolution provisions that you bring up here and the Constitution and the and the rule of law is what you are going after here, then you pick the wrong target. Man up. Go after the President of the United States. No, but that may hurt your chances down the road if you want to run for president or something because maybe you'd alienate more of the MAGA base that still support President Trump that maybe don't like Pete Hegseth. No, you did it as a political stunt. And we'll play even some of Pete Hegseth in the next segment as well. But you did this as a political stunt because it was the easy target because probably some of your your staffers told you polling for Pete Hegseth within your base is much lower than polling for the president. So yeah, that's why you're going after Pete Hegseth. And you know what? There's a a procedural vote on this at 5:30 Eastern tonight. So that's the motion to table whether or not this will just get put aside or whether or not they will move forward. And you know he's going to get all the Democrats on his side. Will he get some defectors in the Republican Party that are more Massie minded or outgoing so they've got nothing left to lose? They try to shake things up a little bit. We'll find out. We'll find out tonight at 5:30.
Logan Sekulow: Yeah, absolutely. Phone lines are open for you. I do want to hear from you. In in the next few segments, we are going to be taking a lot of calls. We're also going to be joined by ACLJ Jerusalem chief Jeff Balabon. So you want to stay tuned for that. But phone lines are going to be open for you right now at 1800-684-3110. I did want to take a minute here while I had some of you watch and to talk about the work of the ACLJ cuz look, these are important times. It's easy to get caught up in the election mess, everything that happened over the last couple of weeks and forget the work of the ACLJ that continues on. But November and December are always the most important months for any organization, but specifically for us in terms of fundraising. So I'm not going to like beat around the bush and tell you and I'm not doing a fundraising pitch here. I am doing a fundraising pitch. If you like this show, we do it without ever having a paywall. 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Every donation is tax deductible. And we do that, your first donation will still be matched a dollar for dollar here during the stand strong challenge. With that, phone lines are open for you at 1800-684-3110. I do want to hear from you. When you hear that things are are being filed, articles of impeachment are being filed against Pete Hegseth. Does it feel like déjà vu? Does it feel like we are back to how things were? How do you feel about it? Do you think there's any merit to it? You can let me know. Maybe you're not a fan. Maybe you feel like there's stuff that needs to be addressed. Maybe you can address Will's claims of why you wouldn't necessarily go after the president then if you felt that way. I want to hear from you. 1800-684-3110. That's 1800-684-3110. We'll be right back with more on Seculo. 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 ACLJs. 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. Across our nation, the principles that have shaped America for generations are being attacked. The lives of innocent, unborn babies are still in jeopardy in numerous states across the country. Our education system is being hijacked as the left tries to strip parents of their god-given rights to decide where and what their children are taught. And religious liberty is under attack, especially for Christians. It's moments like these when the temptation to give up grows stronger. But that's exactly when you have to decide, will I stand firm or will I just watch the waves tear away at our foundations? We need people who understand that religious liberty isn't just a political talking point. It's our god-given right. The stakes are higher than ever, but we are not helpless, and we will not back down. Go to aclj.org/stand right now and have your tax-deductible gift doubled to stand with the ACLJ today. Welcome back to Seculo. We got a few lines still open at 1800-684-3110. I think as we were talking about this, it's only fair also to hear directly from Secretary Hegseth. And we have some sound and some video if you're watching right now that I think we need to play, Will.
Will Addison: That's right. So this is from this press conference he gave this morning. Obviously, these articles of impeachment were introduced uh and is being forced into a vote by Thomas Massie, the outgoing congressman from Kentucky. And so Secretary Hegseth stood defiant this morning. He gave a press conference at the Pentagon. This is some of what he had to say. We've got other things as well. I think it's important to hear though from him. Bite 14.
Pete Hegseth: Clear but what this resolution actually does. It tells our enemies, Iran, the cartels, every adversary watching that the United States will actually punish its own warriors and its own civilian leadership for successfully executing lawful military operations. It tells them that a single rogue legislator loaded with personal animus for the president can attempt to veto national security decisions made by the duly elected commander in chief. It puts a target on the backs of American warriors by signaling that Congress will undermine their missions in real time. This is not patriotism. This is sabotage. And I think a lot of that has to say from what the secretary is saying there goes to what we've said about things like the Hague, the ICC, the the International Criminal Court. And when they have gone after American soldiers, when they have gone after Israel, when we are not a party to that system, and the ACLJ has stood in the gap for the the American military, those that the ICC wanted to prosecute for war crimes for being involved in the Iraq war, for the being involved in Afghanistan. You know what that did? It also it puts a target on the back of American service members. It's similar to what is happening here, but instead of being a foreign court in the International Criminal Court far away, this is coming from within the House of Representatives itself. It puts a target on those that would follow orders and that are lawful orders from the president from the Secretary of War. When he is going after the Secretary of War here, he is putting a target on the back of every American service member because this is becoming a policy dispute and he's using the tool, the mechanism of impeachment like was used against President Trump in the first administration to try air out policy disputes in the public forum in a way that is now lowered the bar. And we we warned of that in the first impeachment over the policy dispute over Ukraine, over the phone call where they went after him to try and get him thrown out of office. Once again, you're seeing it here. An outgoing congressman who's about to have zero authority as a member of the House of Representatives is just going to go back to being a civilian, is going to now have no opportunity to do anything other than as he says, this is not this is not patriotism. This is sabotage. He is putting down landmines on his way out the door. That's all I've got to say about that.
Logan Sekulow: I think we should take this call actually. A lot of people are calling in. But I do want to hear from you. We have a few lines open at 1800-684-3110. Don in Illinois. Don, I think Don speaks for a lot of people. Go ahead.
Guest (Male): Well, I was watching. I love the show, but I had a couple of things I'd like to say. One, there's a victory in this thing, and it has to do with all of all of these deadbeat dinosaurs that we're getting rid of that had been hiding in the closets all the time as far as their trying to act like they're true conservatives and they're not. The Susan Collins, the Susan and all these, they need to clear House of we need to get rid of them. Let's get rid of them. The second thing I'd like to see is Trump's stand with Pete because he talks about loyalty. And the way Pete goes, so does all the other followers of Trump. So he needs to stand with Pete Hegseth. He needs He's He's great.
Logan Sekulow: Yeah, Don. I actually was just saying that earlier on in the show. Whether you agree with by the way Pete Hegseth or not, you may not like him, you may like him. I'm I'm not here to pass judgment on that. I do think President Trump, like you said, he talks about loyalty all the time, but he also has recently said, you know, that he'll be making some changes to the cabinet. By the way, that's nothing new. Two years in, a lot of times you see a lot of turnover in cabinets. It's usually not personal. It's usually just okay, how are we going to fulfill our goals over the next two years? Who's going to fit in that spot? Now I know there's been a lot of heat on Pete Hegseth to be that person who is removed. Now you have Thomas Massie filing this impeachment. I think if anything, you'll actually have the reverse effect. And I think you're right, Don. You'll actually probably see President Trump back Pete up more. And he actually said that in a statement today. Pete Hegseth gets an A plus plus plus again like an old eBay review for his defense against a disgruntled, angry, defeated former congressman Thomas Massie. A total loser. That's I mean that's what he said. I didn't say that.
Will Addison: Well, you you did say it in his voice.
Logan Sekulow: I was trying to make sure people was that I didn't say he's a total loser.
Will Addison: Got Well, here's here's also the the thing. When you look at all of this and to what Don said, to some degree I think the reason he did that early morning press conference was to one, get ahead of the entire new cycle for the day so people would be talking about it. But also
Logan Sekulow: Yeah, I saw the before I saw him before I saw the articles of impeachment story.
Will Addison: for the benefit of his boss. Right. And I think that that is the the end goal here as well is he was also performing for his boss, showing I am strong. I'm going to stand here. I'm going to do my job as long as you will have me, Mr. President, because I serve at the pleasure of the president, not of Thomas Massie who's trying to get him thrown out of his job.
Logan Sekulow: And Caitlyn Collins just asked President Trump about this. Let's hear what he had to say. Bite 18.
Caitlyn Collins: Massie says that he's carried out
Donald Trump: So even if he's impeached, you're going to keep him your defense secretary.
Caitlyn Collins: He won two wars. He was in charge. We all won. I had great people. You what? Massie says that he's carried out Massie's a loser just like you're a loser at CNN. Just like your ratings are a loser. Massie is a loser, stone cold loser. Iran's I did something that nobody's done. I took on a guy that was in his own way, sort of popular in his state. And I beat him badly.
Will Addison: I don't know if you heard that, Logan, but he thinks that Thomas Massie is a loser.
Logan Sekulow: Stone cold loser.
Will Addison: Right.
Caitlyn Collins: Stone cold loser. What?
Logan Sekulow: If you got that, then that's for you. Phone lines are open for you at 1800-684-3110 to be on the air. We are headed to a break here. And before we head to this very short break, we take less than a minute as for for professional radio, you need to station IDs, those kind of things. But with that, I want you to think about for a moment supporting the work of the ACLJ, whether that is this show, whether you like our legal work, whether you like our international work by the way, the ACLJ. We have the European center. We're going to hear from Jeff Balabon, ACLJ Jerusalem in a couple segments. Maybe you're one of the few that still still supports everything in terms of what's going on in Israel. Maybe you think we need to be there. Maybe you need you like our work that we're doing in Pakistan. All of this work is all under the umbrella of the ACLJ. This show, the legal side of it, the international work, all of it is connected. All of it is funded and supported by individual people like you. And I know that that sounds like hyperbole, but it's true. A lot of big organizations, they have donors. And we do have some great donors who give large gifts, and I'm very thankful for those donors. But the mass majority, and I'm talking about 99% of the people plus who donate, donate once a year sometime between somewhere between $25 and $100. Maybe they become an ACLJ champion. That's only about you know 20,000 people that do that that support the work on a monthly recurring basis. It's not a very big group of people when you think about how many people ingest our content, use our services. So even if it's just that one time a year, and a lot of times this is it, November and December. I know things are financially tough right now. So again, these pitches are going to be understandably different this year. We know that the work has never been more critical. So I'm going to ask you to stand strong. Stand strong for your family, stand strong for your religious freedoms around the world and here. That's aclj.org where your donations are doubled. If you don't get the second half hour of this show on your local station, we broadcast live 12:00 to 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time each and every day. So we got a second half hour coming up. We do that all over the world, aclj.org, YouTube, Rumble, Facebook, however you get your podcast. We're there of course archived later on. Be right back.
Pete Hegseth: Across our nation, the principles that have shaped America for generations are being attacked. The lives of innocent, unborn babies are still in jeopardy in numerous states across the country. It's moments like these when the temptation to give up grows stronger. But that's exactly when you have to decide, will I stand firm or will I just watch the waves tear away at our foundations? Go to aclj.org/stand right now and have your tax-deductible gift doubled today.