CNN Post Backfires Again, As SCOTUS Weighs Defamation Case

Keeping you informed and engaged, now more than ever, this is Secular. We want to hear from you, share and post your comments, or call 1-800-6-8-4-3-1-1-0. And now your host. Welcome to Secular. I'm Will Haynes. I'm joined in studio by Jordan Secular. We'll be joined by Senior Managing Council for the ACLJ, Christy Kompanyone, to tell us about a major victory the ACLJ got in federal court and the appeals court level.

But today we're going to start off with something that's, I guess, not surprising based

“off who the source is, but still shocking nonetheless. You remember over the weekend, there”

was attempted terror attack against people expressing their first amendment, right, protesting

outside of Gracie Manchin in New York, the residents of the mayor, and two individuals ran forward, screamed a law who locked bar, and threw IEDs into the crowd. It is very fortunate that these did not explode and cause mass injury and death. They have already been arraigned. They were both of the individuals were caught. They were said to be inspired by ISIS. They lamented that the Boston Marathon bombings only killed three people. These were not individuals

that were all of a sudden caught up in something. But yet, if you follow CNN on X, you may

“have seen this post. Two Pennsylvania teenagers crossed into New York City Saturday morning”

for what could have been a normal day enjoying the city during abnormally warm weather. But in less than an hour, their lives would drastically change as the pair would be arrested for throwing homemade bombs during an anti-Muslim protest outside of Mayor Soran Moundani's

home. Here's what we know so far. The framing. It harkens back to the fiery but mostly peaceful

protest that happened around the George Floyd incident. It is CNN doing what CNN does. They have since taken that post down and updated it with saying that it doesn't reflect the gravity of the incident and it goes against their editorial standards. But Jordan,

“this is CNN. This is what they do. And actually a major reason why we are at the Supreme”

Court going against CNN right now. That's right. Because even this, you start wondering who are they focusing on the images they show around the event. Well, sometimes be the maga protesters. So were those the people that they're trying to indicate to you if you're just looking at the newspaper. These are

the people that were the problem. But second, the idea that they were just kind of normal

guys going into the city and their life changed. No, they intentionally came into the city to cause people to die in the name of terrorism. ISIS inspired attack. They were not two guys who people just randomly came up to and said, hey, were you throw these bombs or put these bombs in strategic locations while there is a pro conservative rally going outside the mayor's office? No. These were sleeper cells likely or those lone wolves who were

inspired by ISIS. They had no other task going into New York City on that beautiful spring day than to kill Americans and others who are protesting against the mayor and supporting Israel. That's right. And when we come back, we have an update actually on that cert petition that we have before the Supreme Court taking on CNN. We'll get to that. But also, I want to remind you, this is our seven days of global impact here at the ACL

Day where your impact is doubled. We can't do all this work that we do around the world without your support. And I want to remind you, what we even talked about yesterday, a big victory in Pakistan for someone who was facing severe sentences over violation of their blasphemy laws. We have four individuals on death row that we represent right now. So your impact around the globe at ACLJ.org/global.

talking about this statement from CNN that they put out in the wake of the attempted

“terror attack in New York City over the weekend where they said two Pennsylvania teenagers”

crossed into New York City Saturday morning. For what could have been a normal day and joined this city during abnormally warm weather. But in less than an hour, their lives would drastically change as the pair would be arrested. For throwing homemade bombs during an anti-Muslim protest

outside Mayor Zoran Mondami's home. Here's what we know so far. Now that post has been taken down,

they have said that a post regarding the two individuals arrested for throwing homemade bombs outside New York City Mayor Zoran Mondami's home failed to reflect the gravity of the incident. And thereby breaching the editorial standards we require for all our reporting. It has therefore been deleted. Jordan, I mean you expect it because I mean you could be crying in the sense that this is how they are trying to mislead the American people at a time when our FBI said the

security is heightened. Right. That we have to watch out for sleeper selves. They've picked up these kind of old school ways of communicating with spies where they use certain words that they can

then that don't necessarily mean anything that they can then use as a code book to decipher and

put that into a message. And so they've picked that up. Yet CNN tries to actually these are just two regular guys who decided what? Within minutes that they were going to build a bomb while they were in New York City and then go to a known protest of conservatives and throw it at them or leave it at them to kill as many as possible. That's not a normal day in New York and they didn't put those bombs together while they were deciding whether oh, that we should do this. We should

commit an act of terror. They were ISIS inspired. It was intentional. They pre-meditated this attack.

“And that's what the New York Times forgot. This was a pre-meditated attack. Thankfully thwarted”

on fellow Americans because of their political or religious views. That's right. I mean even the fact that that's seen in frames it as in less than an hour their lives would drastically change. Why? Because they got caught? No, their lives were consistent. It feels like up to that point. From whenever they became radicalized and decided to commit an act of terror. I feel like that is when their life changed. Not when they were arrested and thankfully their plot was not carried

out. Yes, the change for them was that they are no longer free to commit terror. But yet CNN has to frame it in the most absurd way. When you have Brian Stelter criticizing his own network about the framing of it, you know you've gone too far. Yeah, because that is the king of misframing things and spin at CNN. And he said the story itself was solid, but the tweet was outrageous.

“And that's what they want. They need to click baits. So the story itself more and more matters”

so little because people look and they retweet before they even click on that link because they like the idea they like the headline or they agree with it. That can happen on both sides of the aisle. But we certainly see it more on the left this click bait, this idea that oh it's just these guys and their life changed forever. Well thank God they will be behind bars hopefully for the rest of their life or for a very long time because they could have killed not just change people's

life but killed people because of the premeditated act of terror inspired by ISIS that they were committed to carrying out and their attack thankfully was thwarted. These aren't two normal guys. These are two dangerous terrorists. And once again that is one of the reasons not this story specifically but goes into why we are at the Supreme Court right now because CNN frames things that are outside of the truth. And we know that because in a case, Dershwitz versus CNN

of which we have a certain petition hinting at the Supreme Court CNN decided to take something

that Professor Alan Dershwitz said during the first Trump impeachment trial on in the well of the

Senate, something that was documented widely played in real time and could have been fact checked by CNN. They decided to take out the context of what he said and air the hypothetical that he said as if that was his point. And then continuously went with that and claimed it was something new called the Dershwitz doctrine. The lower courts all said, listen, if it weren't for New York times of East Sullivan, this precedent at the Supreme Court, he was defamed by all definitions of

the law. Professor Dershwitz was defamed by CNN. However, we have a problem. What is that problem

That precedent was something that Professor Dershwitz himself was a clerk in help crafting the

“opinion that even he says is now no longer how things should be going because of the nature”

of the world today. But here's the other catch. CNN tried to not have to respond. We filed our petition and they met at the deadline, filed a notice that they were waving their right to respond to our cert petition. The Supreme Court said not so fast. Yes, we want to hear from you CNN. So CNN was then ordered to produce a response. Then CNN said, okay, well, we're not ready. So they asked for an extension, which is normal and granted by the Supreme Court.

Their answer is now due less than a month from today. April 3rd, CNN must respond to our

cert petition about this entire case that we are asking the Supreme Court to take up. So this is where we are at and we are going, I'm sorry, not April 3rd April 17th. So just over a month from today, we will see what CNN has to say for themselves in this and then we get to file a reply by May 1st. Right. Well, let me explain the legal strategy there by CNN. They don't reply

“initially because they want to act like this is not a serious lawsuit. And I think the court will just”

never take this dismiss it and doesn't even need their reasoning. So when the court came back, that is huge, especially in a case that is challenging Supreme Court President. Starry decisive, something that courts and lower courts have relied on since the New York times for a Sullivan case. So they are really thinking about at least four of those justices about hearing the arguments, both from our briefing, but now requiring CNN to brief it. And then

potentially taking up the case to the U.S. Supreme Court for oral argument. So the fact that CNN

was forced to reply is good news. It's not 100 percent that that case, there never is 100 percent

that it's going to get all the way to a hearing at the U.S. Supreme Court with a final decision. But in a case of this magnitude, overturning a precedent which has become something that it was never intended to be. It was about elected officials. That was it, basically people who are officers of the government paid for by taxpayers, not personal individuals who happen to have a high profile because of their business position or their abilities or the fact that they appear on television

news. This again folks would be likely when you move aside maybe the overturning of Roe versus Wade are our early cases establishing religious liberty as speech that you can't discriminate which we're fighting all the time. So the case is on life, the national security. But when you come to overturning a precedent like New York Times versus Sullivan, that is gigantic in legal history.

“That's right. And once again, this wasn't the only thing that CNN had to apologize for”

around this story within the last 24 hours. This is bite one. This is Abby Phillip. How she opened her show and how she framed this attempted terror attack. Let's go ahead and play bite one. Two Republicans say Muslims don't belong here. After an attempted terror attack against New York's mayor Zoran Mondani and the House Speaker Mike Johnson says nothing really to condemn those comments. Another special guest is going to be with us at the table.

Once again, Abby Phillip, they are trying so hard to make this about racist conservatives. That is their goal. They want to make this another racism play against conservatives. She said to Republicans say that Muslims don't belong here after an attempted terror attack against New York mayor Zoran Mondani. Wait, what? That's who the target of this terror attack was? Well, she got called out for it. In this morning, not on her show. We'll see if maybe she

does this live when she gets back live today. Right. But said on on X, put this up about three hours ago from when I am speaking to you now. I want to correct something I said last night. The bombs thrown in New York City over the weekend by ISIS-inspired attackers was thrown into a crowd of anti-Muslim protesters and not specifically targeted at Mayor Mondami. The wording was inaccurate and I didn't catch it ahead of time. I apologize for the error. They are just stacking up

factual inaccuracies these days. It's CNN. They are trying so desperately to frame a narrative.

people and it's not working. And we will call them out when this happens. And if necessary,

“we will take it to court like we are doing currently with a certain petition at the Supreme Court.”

Folks, this is also our global impact week seven days of global impact and you can double your impact. Both here and around the world by going to aclj.org/global that is aclj.org/global. When we come back, we have a major update from a big win here at the fifth circuit court of appeals and much more aclj.org. Welcome back to Seculo. And we are joined now by senior managing council,

Christy Campagnone to tell us about a major victory out of the fifth circuit court of appeals. This is a case that you've heard us talk about for quite some time now. As these legal battles many times are not quick, but this involves a teacher in Texas that was told originally,

“you cannot pray anywhere you can be seen by a student. And we took that to court and it has gone”

now part of this case to the fifth circuit court of appeals. Christy first give us some back

story on what we were taking to the court of appeals and then also what we are now seeing. Of course. So when we were in the district court in Texas, we had gone ahead and filed our complaint and then there was something called a motion to dismiss on that complaint. And essentially what that was says that none of these facts, if you take them all to be true, are going to support a victory or a win in court. And one of the biggest reasons that they argued that that we could not win

is because the principal who is the one who told our client, Stacey Barber, that she could not

pray in front of students and she could not pray at the pole, that he had qualified immunity,

“which means as a government official, he can't be sued for the things that he says as a government”

official. And of course, we argued that and our district court judge said that yes, that he can be found liable even though he's a government official with qualified immunity. So we breached qualified immunity because this was a clearly established law as we found at the Supreme Court in the Kennedy case. So then, you know, I'll let you go, but just for everyone to get the principal here was trying to argue that because I'm a government official, it's essentially you can't do

anything about me violating someone's constitutional right, even if there's Supreme Court precedent that says that I can't do this, I can still get away with this because I work for a government place. This is a public school. You can't do anything here, but go ahead. I'll let you continue. So the district court held for us, which is a really great victory, but then the defendants went ahead and appealed that to the fifth circuit. And so we had to go back into court and fight

this time with an oral argument in front of a three panels of judges. And we argued again there that no Kennedy rules here, that principal should have known at the time he was telling her she can't pray that he was violating her right, clearly established rights, that the Supreme Court is upheld only in the past four years. So we take this to the fifth circuit. This is something that once you even leave district court, there's, it's a much broader base of judges, like you said,

three judge panel, also more questions arise, whether you will succeed on this. This is still, once again folks, we are still in the middle of this case, but yet we take this to the fifth circuit. I'm sorry, the principal appealed the lower court decision saying, hey, I don't think that the district court got this right. We argue, no, the Supreme Court under Kennedy shows that this should be known. And what happens next at the fifth circuit as we fight this appeal

and what kind of victory and outcome have we gotten now? It's very exciting because the fifth circuit went ahead and held it. Yes, the principal did violate a clearly established law as found in Kennedy and that if you take our complaint as truth, we will be successful in our lawsuit. So this is really wonderful news for us. In Jordan, joining me as well, Kristi, he's got a question to pass on as well. What's interesting to me, Kristi, is they are using taxpayer dollars

to continue to fight this, to continue to appeal? I mean, could you see this school district

here, the case, because I think it's pretty settled law, but it seems like they are ready to use

“the taxpayers' coffers and all the money they pay in to fight because the teacher had the”

audacity to pray and even though they've lost all the way up. I have to tell you, Jordan, it really does seem like this is maybe the kind of defense that they're going to play this long game. We've actually said there's a very real possibility that they will be trying a certain appeal at the Supreme Court. As you said, it obviously is not going to be successful and is just wasting time and dollars. But if they were smart, they would come back to the table now at the district court

and maybe admit that there was something wrong here. What thing that could be interesting if they did take the U.S. Supreme Court? Maybe that gives the Supreme Court yet another opportunity

to make it clear to all these government agencies, including schools that, hey, look at the

Kennedy opinion, where we went there, when you're trying to do this to a teacher and just because someone might see them. Again, this wasn't with students, this wasn't trying to be with students,

“but basically there's nowhere to say on campus for you to pray if possibly a student could see you”

doing that prayer is not welcome at this school and you would think after getting hit, but loss after loss that they would say, you know what? We're going to stop using the taxpayer's money hundreds of thousands of dollars if not more to fight a teacher who wants to pray privately because someone might drive by and see her praying. Can't you? I mean, how do they not know she's meditating or taking a moment of silence for herself? The culture's totally acceptable that

once they find out those Christie, it's a Christian prayer. They're willing to use those tax

paid dollars to fight prayer, even in private situations, not trying to engage with students, but her own private prayer because it happens to be possible that someone sees that she is got her eyes closed, I guess because again, you could be doing that for a lot of different reasons, and it doesn't have to be faith-based. You're exactly right. I mean, our client even when as far as to say, "Well, do you want me to move to the parking lot?" And the principal said,

"Oh, no, there's going to be more students walking back and forth than the car's. You can't even move to the parking lot." I mean, that's the absurdity I want people to understand here. That this school district is still continuing to fight. There's nowhere to go. You can't go to your car where people do it if they want to take a personal phone call, something like that that they need privacy, can't pray in your car. I guess you can't then take a moment to meditate either,

Christie, because teachers wouldn't they assume that they could assume that other students could assume that they are somehow engaged in a religious act, and the school doesn't want them to see that because they have this misunderstanding of the law. I mean, going and taking a break in your car kind of deep breaths, closing your eyes, breathing. I mean, that's something that's encouraged in our whole wellness industries that are popping up everywhere in the self-care industries.

And yet, this teacher has nowhere to go to, and all the other teachers have nowhere to go to take a moment for themselves and breathe and maybe close their eyes in a private setting, in their own car, behind closed doors because a student might see it as religious.

“It is absolutely absurd, but this is why it's so important that we are fighting on the ground here,”

because this is going to reach out further than just Texas. This is hitting all of the six circuit, and any teacher who wants to be able to pray in the lunch room in their own classroom of a teacher, another teacher could walk in, or a student could walk in, and there could be an issue there. This is going to protect you. So this goes far more reaching than just this one client that we have, and it's really important we finish this fight strong. And once again,

the fight isn't over, this win at the court of appeals saying that the lawsuit can go forward. So that means we go back to the district court, and we fight this lawsuit and continue to fight not just for just as for this teacher, for her constitutional rights. But as Kristi mentioned, for every teacher's constitutional rights, and that is why when you support the ACLJ, it has a lasting impact on the constitutional rights of everyone in this country. And as Jordan said,

they may try to fight this all the way to the Supreme Court. Good, we'll be there, because we're not afraid, because we know that we have the Constitution on our side. We know we have the attorneys who can go in there and win these, but we can't do it without you, don't need today at ACLJ.org. Keeping you informed and engaged now more than ever. This is secular. Welcome to secular. Will Haynes here joined in studio by Jordan's secular. And we are

discussing some of the hot water that CNN has been in within the last, I don't know,

two now alleged terrorists that are in custody and have been arranged in New York for throwing

“IEDs into a crowd that they were just two Pennsylvania teenagers that went into New York City. And”

you know, they could have been a normal day enjoying the city during abnormally warm weather. But in less than an hour, their their lives would drastically change. As the pair would be arrested for throwing homemade bombs. It's absurd. That is the way that they would frame this potential terrorist attack that was thankfully unsuccessful, because would they have written the same headline and post on X if their had been deaths and people maimed their IEDs were glass jars

filled with shrapnel. That that was only intended to kill and maim. I don't think I hope they

would not have framed it the same way. But it hardens back to even Ilon Omar when she was discussing 9/11 and said, you know, some people did something and then the rest of the Muslim community had to form care like her fax were wrong, care was founded long before 9/11. But but even that, it's the it's the same twisting of reality and making the perpetrators here at the victims. They were just teenagers. They should have just been able to enjoy a normal day, but

man, I guess they just got so triggered by seeing this protest in front of Gracie Manchin that they

had to do something and they just happened to have these homemade bombs with them that they brought

from Pennsylvania that they could throw at the crowd. I mean, the absurdity for them.

“Because the truth is, the people who had less than an hour could have had their lives drastically”

change weren't these two Muslim terrorists who were pre-meditated in their building of a bomb, explosive devices going to New York, not because it was a sunny day, but because they knew there was a kind of pro Israel, they want to call it course anti-Muslim, but pro Israel kind of event outside the mayor's office and Gracie Manchin this idea. So they knew that there would be a group of people there to target and yet the way that they write the story as well, their lives

changed forever. No, they were trying to to kill and change other people's lives forever, but by naming them. I mean, how many people would have lost not just to have lost their life, but limbs, their ability to hear or see, this could have been a really tragic event and then

“New York Times plays it into these are the guys whose lives are drastically changed.”

They were trying to kill as many people as they could possible. They pre-meditated their lives were already over. And what I hope, now it's in New York, but what I hope is that because again, the federal government could be involved and has the death penalty under President Trump, because we need to make it clear to these ISIS inspired and other Islamic terrorists that if you are caught trying to carry out attacks that will kill fellow Americans who are exercising their

constitutional rights, because you don't like the speech that they are engaged in, that if you are successful, you will be executed, and that if you are caught doing it, you will spend at least most of the rest of your life behind bars. That's right. And folks, when we get back, we are going to get into some more of the global impact of the ACLJ and tell you how you can get involved as well. But I also want to hear from you. What do you think about this from CNN with their post on

X, as well as Abby Phillips, Miss representing who the target of the attack was, and then having to correct that, go ahead and call me at 1-800-6-843-110. That's 1-800-6-843-110. But when we come back, we're going to get a little bit more into some of the global impact that the ACLJ has. And that is why we are doing this seven days of global impact. And you can double your impact by going to ACLJ.org/global and donating today, ACLJ.org/global.

Welcome back to Secular. We'll hands here joined in studio by Jordan Secular, and we will be taking your phone calls in this next segment. Call me at 1-800-6-843-110. But before we get to that, I didn't want to talk about the global impact of the ACLJ. And we are in this seven days of global

You've already heard of a huge victory in this first half hour of the broadcast that is more domestic

“focus. But also the victory that we have around the world. The unique ability we have to fight for the”

persecuted around the world and to stand up for justice in this world. It's remarkable to see the scope of what we can do at the ACLJ because you stand with us. We don't take that for granted, but we know the impact that you are having through this organization. And one of those things that we were uniquely positioned for was after the horrific attack of October 7th. When there were so many Israelis taken hostage by Hamas, we didn't sit around and wait to see what we could do.

We know that because of our unique position of having ACLJ Jerusalem as well as our wonderful

infrastructure here in Washington, D.C. and the ability to reach out to members of Congress on both sides of the aisle that we could start to get something done. And so I'm going to play a video

“here for you. This was made about the immediate impact we were able to have in the wake of October 7th,”

standing for the families of those that were taken hostage by Hamas. So I'm going to play this and then, Jordan and I will discuss it on the other side of it. In the wake of the Hamas terror attack on Israel, the American Center for Law and Justice acted swiftly to support the victims and their families. Through our offices in Washington, D.C. Jerusalem and Europe, we launched a massive global effort to represent the families of

hostages taken by Hamas. On October 7th, 2023, the world watched in horror as Hamas launched a brutal and coordinated terror attack on innocent Israeli civilians, slaughtering nearly 2,000 innocent victims and abducting hundreds more. It's the town of Kfaraza, their military chiefs, tanks, everywhere we understand that there were dozens of people killed here, there may still be bodies out in this town right now. They were ruthless, even the children, they did not spare.

It was an act of mass antisemitic evil on par with the Nazis. Our ACLJ legal team filed with the UN Working Group on Enforced, were involuntary disappearances on behalf of 10 families, urging the immediate international intervention. We submitted demand letters to the European Union, the US Congress, and the UN Security Council. We also filed a Freedom of Information Act request

to expose the Biden deep states antisemitic attacks and hold rogue anti-Israel lawmakers and government agencies accountable. And our team stood side by side with some of these hostage families on Capitol Hill and at the European Parliament, helping them share their personal stories of this living nightmare and appealing directly to lawmakers and world leaders to intercede for their loved ones. House Republicans met with and heard from family members

of some of the victims, not only to understand their grief and pain, but to make clear why Israel must do everything in its power to wipe out hummus and ensure that what happened October 7th

can never happen again. We will stand against these atrocities, we will stand with Israel,

we will stand with each of you and your families, and we'll be taking action. If I want to thank the American Center for Law and Justice for helping facilitate the visit today, thanks to international and domestic pressure, as well as legal efforts such as hours. Approximately 158 hostages have since been returned to Israel alive, including a young mother and her three children directly represented by her ACLJ legal team.

Hagar Brodich never lost track of what day it was, and she says her thoughts are always with those who are still there. We have to stop everything and wriggling back home. Nothing is

“so important as them. In 2025, two more Israeli hostages represented by the ACLJ,”

Doran Steinbrecker and Emily Demari, were freed after enduring more than 15 months in Hamas captivity. The ACLJ remains committed to ensuring that justice is served. As you watch that piece, I want to point out a few things and also then talk to Jordan about

But October 7th, I feel like it's lost in the aftermath of what won now. We have this conflict with

Iran. You have how the world turned on Israel for the war in Gaza that was response to what

“Hamas did on October 7th, but never forget also Iran funds Hamas. That is their proxy.”

They, we know, helped coordinate in plan October 7th. So it wasn't just a Hamas attack on Israel. It was also an Iranian attack on Israel on October 7th. That is what they mean when they say death to Israel. But you know what else they chant there, death to America. That type of atrocity is what they want here as well. That is one of the reasons why one supporting those families was so important, but also the awareness that we can bring because that is what Iran's goal is not just

for in their region, but here on the homeland as well. And when you see reports that there are codes going out, encrypted transmissions to activate individuals. And you see we have already had terror attacks inspired by and in support of Iran on the American homeland. We have to keep fighting. And the ACLJ is uniquely positioned Jordan to do this because of our offices at the UN, the European Parliament, as well as the U.S. Congress, you were just in Montana fostering those relationships with

members of Congress and future members of Congress so that we are always ready when we have to jump

into action, we can. There's some breaking news to happen at point out too. It's just present in Trump as being asked about what's going on with Iran, what's the next steps. And he just announced that we must destroy Hezbollah as well. So he is decided not to expand this to not just, and there have been airstrikes on Hezbollah strongholds. And Hezbollah is supposedly planning potentially an invasion into Israel crossing red lines and blue lines, past the UN peacekeepers

who usually are assisting them in their work. They've been launching some attacks, crude missiles at northern Israel, which has been mostly evacuated, and usually has to during any kind of conflict. Now Hezbollah has also had a lot of problems like Iran, even more serious. They lost two leaders

“in a row. Their military was greatly downgraded. They didn't get a lot done. Remember around October”

7th, they didn't really join up in what was going on there. But things are changing as they see Iran, which is their main backer, kind of, you know, filtering on the edge. They've got to now prove that they are somehow relevant and worthy of the Iranians continuing to support them. So President Trump has added them to the list of organizations, kind of like what he did with ISIS that must be destroyed. That is breaking news that just occurred. They made that statement.

Well, and here's what's also unique about that is that just yesterday, something unprecedented

happened. And because for people to remember, Hezbollah is this quasi-government. They are elected. They elect their leaders. They have a big pushback. The government of Lebanon does not control them. They actually control about half the country, the southern portion of Lebanon. They not only have an army, an actual army, but they provide in those region, kind of some sort of government

“support. So it is much more entrenched in that region of Lebanon. And that's why it's harder”

for the actual government of Lebanon to deal with because they have made themselves a quasi-government in the southern part of the country. But the leadership of Lebanon, they are normally terrified of Hezbollah. Yes. They have asked the United States to mediate direct talks with Israel. So the leadership in Lebanon, one sees the writing on the wall for the benefactor of Hezbollah, right, as well as knowing that that can weaken Hezbollah. But they have asked for direct talks to

begin immediately with Israel in Cyprus. That is something that is unheard of. It's unheard of, but as you see, it kind of gives the green light to what President Trump is just announced, which is that we can go in and we need to take Hezbollah out because if you don't take these proxies out, you're not really taking Iran's ability to strike our troops, which Hezbollah does as well, use that location. And our allies like Israel, if you don't take Hezbollah out like you

government, which is outside of Hezbollah, wants to talk to the US because they don't want to end up like the Gaza Strip, exactly. But they do know there's a problem that must be eradicated. Folks, we will be getting to your phone calls in the next segment, John and Michael,

“hang on the line. If you want to join us, 1-800-684-3110, also support this work,”

ACLJ.org/global today. Welcome back to Secular Will Haines here. I see quite a few people saying where is Logan? You know, every once in a while, people get some time off or we don't have to the country. I was gone a few weeks ago. We, you know, we all worked together in this studio. Exactly. He'll be back tomorrow. So if you miss Logan, someone keeps saying they miss his Southern

accent, which is, I mean, we are in Tennessee, but Logan is not the first person. I think of

when I think of Southern accent. But that Southern accent will be back tomorrow. Yeah, if for people from other parts of the country, did we all sound like Southern is talking, right? When the three of us are here, we all boarded the south, but we're in in the same city, in Atlanta. Yes, but I don't necessarily have the strongest accent of some of our friends and

“others. Yeah, we know, but let's go right to phone calls. Also, if you want to be on air”

call us at 1-800-6-843-110, but John, I'm sorry. We had a lot to get to, but thank you so much for holding on. You're on Secular Go ahead. Thanks for saying my call, guys. I tell you what, above American justice department does a stop of Sudan. He's so cold journalist and many of our Democratic Party more aggressively for giving aid and comfort to the enemy. They're very pretty much doomed and through as a nation. I'm telling you, there's a lot of what's right through

us on our hands. I hear what you're saying, and obviously it's easy to get fired up about this. Yeah, because you read the absurdity. Now, one, we are robust defenders and advocates for the

first amendment for the freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of press. Helps expose

bad ideas. Right. Right. Exactly. The kind of the old adage is the way you fight bad speech is not with taking it away. It's by giving more speech. Being able to combat that. Now, I agree with you. It's absurd what you're seeing. The fact that they would frame two individuals that were trying to kill Americans, based off an ideology, a true terrorist attack, an ideology. We have been fighting in ISIS. It's absurd. Yes, they shouldn't get away with it. However,

that in and of itself does not violate the First Amendment or even the Freedom of Press. It's disgusting. Yes. But there are ways that we can go after those that do take it too far, such as CNN. And that is exactly what we're doing at the Supreme Court right now. The precedent of New York

Times versus Sullivan gave them almost this impenetrable wall. Yes. It was like a super First Amendment

that regular individuals that with our right to free speech are right to freedom of religion did not have. At the same time, we are having to fight at the Supreme Court against Gavin Newsom, who went after the First Amendment right of a church and is trying to find them. There's not a super wall of protection built up by precedent for churches, but there is for the press in New York times of the Sullivan. So that is one thing that we are fighting back at right now at the Supreme

“Court. You see that CNN, they were ordered by the Supreme Court. You have to respond.”

Their response is due now April 17th. We will then get to see what their argument is for this. When lower courts even said, on paper, yeah, by the law, it's defamation, however, but for New York Times v. Sullivan, we would do something about it, but we can't. So the Supreme Court now needs to address that. We'll see what CNN has to say and then we will respond again by May 5th is when our reply would be due. You know, I think folks, what's so important to

understand here is one, it's the attack on speech that is disliked. It's not, again, which isn't attack on the First Amendment. And that's why we have to keep fighting back with all these issues. One is I don't really want the left to be shut up. I think the more that you people hear them talk, the more they hear AOC and Ilhan Omar. These self-proclaimed leaders, new leaders of the Democrat Party, talk, especially when it comes to foreign policy. It's good for conservatives

for the American people to see that, especially when it's not edited and it's live and it's happening and mainstream media can't cut around it to try and make them look like they were saying something that they actually weren't saying. I spent a week in will, actually more than that before five days with two U.S. senators, one who is new, Senator Tim Xi, he is just finishing this

they think has to be a totally red state. It is a very conservative state, but he had those kind of

“John tester types who would act like they were moderates, but voted 100% along with a Democrat”

party. He took a tester out. He's a former Navy seal. We spent time with him and his chief of staff, Mike Berg, and we were able to, and these events that are outside Washington, D.C., families were invited to kids are writing around to have these really kind of intimate discussions on how we can assist each other. He's new, so we wanted to have those discussions to kind of get to know more about us. He knew who we were. Obviously, he watched the impeachment things like that.

It was about the work that we do that comes across their desk. Miss Chief of Staff really did know

who we were. And after this first year and kind of getting settled into office, now we've got that

relationship to work with directly, you know, unlike a cell phone basis. And that's something that you create out of taking time to, I guess, take that relationship past the 15, 20 minute meeting in Washington, D.C., where there's people crammed everywhere with the small events. It was also interesting because leading up to it, great senator Steve Daines, who we've worked with over many years even when he was in Congress announced his retirement, but also the Republican who was going to run for his

seat, it was done so perfectly registered. And there was no more time for anybody else to register. So he will be the Republican nominee. And he is Kurt Almy, who is a two-time U.S. attorney from President Trump under 45 and 47. So we have that legal connection. Not only did we have some one-on-ones with him and some of the staff he's inheriting from Senator Daines, but we had a three-hour dinner with wives and kind of just about six of us, three of us from the ACLJ,

and just talked through the issues that's coming, going from being a U.S. attorney to potentially and likely a U.S. Senator in Washington, D.C., was awesome and interesting about him, both he and his wife attended Harvard Law School. So they were, I think, out of all these political events, the reason why they dinner went for like three hours was not just talking all the back room politics and how do you win and destroy your opponents. It was because they had this opportunity

to talk law. Right. And so with his background, he's a conservative nose a lot about the ACLJ and his wife as well. We were able to talk big issues in one of the coolest moments that happened.

“And I want to tell you this, it's not something secret, but it's something I think there was”

that was really unique. So Kurt, who just stepped down as the U.S. attorney for a second time,

and when your U.S. attorney in Montana is the whole state. Right. So I mean covering all sorts of issues from violent crime to economic crime and just anything and everything you can imagine at a state that large geographically with lots of issues, there's lots of Indian reservations, with sovereignty issues, and things like that. He brought up two unique issues. I won't go into those legal issues. And he said, you know, this is something I would love some info on from guys

like you. And a Dom Parsons from our team was seeing right there. And he jumped in and said, we're actually working on that as you speak. And, you know, these were kind of novel. He was thinking this would be something we'd have to look as new. So in that click, and we said, hey, we'll get it to you by this week. And then we'll give you a call to kind of talk through it and see what you think. That just shows them right away. You know what? When I get to Washington, D.C., this is a group.

I want to work with because we've got the same mindset and we've got a team I would trust their legal expertise. And I understand that our minds are kind of synced. So to get him to Washington,

“D.C., to have that time as well before the campaign gets so heated, you have to make the”

commitment to go. And that's what we're doing at the A.C. L.J., to build those relationships early.

Well, it's what your dad has always called the Ministry of Presence. You have to be there.

It's also when we showed you how we were able to jump into action for those hostage families, because of the Ministry of Presence, because we are all these places. I'm going to leave you with this, though. We got a super chat in from a viewer at Logan Secular Official said, have your donation doubled at at acilj.org.