Sen. Ted Cruz Live: Israel-Hamas War Death Toll Passes 1,700

Today on Sekulow, U.S. Senator Ted Cruz and U.S.

Senator Bill Hagerty join us to discuss the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas as the death toll passes 1700. Up next, your host Jordan Sekulow. Alright folks, welcome to Sekulow. We've got a packed show for you today with great experts joining us. Senator Ted Cruz will be joining us in the next segment of the broadcast. Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo joining us.

Senator Bill Hagerty joining us. All on of course the conflict, the war between Israel and Hamas. And of course the Iranian involvement, the Lebanese and Hezbollah involvement and where we are at this moment.

Where this war stands, you've got conflicting remarks at best I think you would say from the Biden administration that even many Democrats have disagreed with and tweets deleted and remarks going on about climate change. We'll get into all of that but what is ultimately we want to just kind of first report is that we now know that 11 U.S. citizens have been confirmed killed. We know that there are some U.S. citizens that are hostages, at least 150 that are still alive supposedly, that's trusting Hamas. President Biden is going to speak at some point today but we are taking action. We are not, of course you know we have an office in Jerusalem and we've had that office there for many years but we are taking direct action and we've got it planned out for the week, Dad.

We do. This is exactly what we are doing which is what we do best which is working with governments and within the legal system. So yesterday we notified the United Nations through a legal letter that set forth what laws have been violated on international law by Hamas.

It's a hostile environment, the UN, but we have NGO status through our European Center for Law and Justice and that gives us a voice. And listen, when you've got few voices speaking out for Israel, every voice counts that up on the screen right now is that letter that we sent to the Secretary General of the United Nations. Today a letter is being delivered and will be hand delivered by our government affairs staff and there's that letter right there and that is going to Hakeem Jeffries. He is the minority leader of the House Democrats and that is focusing on what's called the DSA, the Democratic Socialist Group inside the Democratic Party who have said horrible things about Israel and are basically backing Hamas.

And that is being delivered because again there's a domestic component to all of this as well. That's right, I mean you've got again members of the Congress, they are Democrats but they are members of this Democrats Socialist of America which puts these pro-Hama statements out. It's Congresswoman Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, AOC, Rashida Tlaib, Cori Bush, Jamal Bowman, they are all DSA members in quote good standing and yet none of them have distanced themselves from the actions or beliefs of their DSA benefactors. So what we're being clear is that Hakeem Jeffries put out a very strong statement like many Democrats have that are in support of Israel that he needs to take action inside his own caucus and let them know either you need to dispel that your membership with the DSA, condemn their comments or potentially face a congressional response which can be a censure, there's a number of things at play here, we lay it all out in the letter but so far that they have again tried to make this a morally, all of them, morally equivalent battle.

Which is ridiculous. Tomorrow our European Center for Law and Justice will be at the Council of Europe. There are just three votes away from being able to totally defund Hamas.

The countries that are the problem right now are Denmark, Luxembourg and Ireland. And our team in Strasbourg, a very sophisticated team in Strasbourg is working on that. So we have legal action that we now are implementing each and every day. And that's where you come in folks and I want to say a huge thank you to our ACLJ members and our new ACLJ champions.

Many of you joined with us yesterday. Again, we want you to stand with Israel, be a champion for life, liberty and freedom. An ACLJ champion is someone who supports the work of the ACLJ each and every month which is how we determine exactly how to handle these kind of emergency situations. So I encourage you to go to ACLJ.org slash champions. You donate any amount and make it a recurring monthly gift and you become an ACLJ champion. This week focusing on Israel, standing with Israel, be a champion for life, liberty and freedom. ACLJ.org slash champions.

Do it today. Welcome to the broadcast everyone. We are fortunate to have a good friend of ours, Senator Ted Cruz. Senator, thank you for being with us on this tragic weekend and now ongoing conflict. You have been a champion for Israel on so many issues that we've had the pleasure of working with you on. I did that case at the International Criminal Court involving Israel all those years ago and then we've been having these other issues that have developed. Now we're in a conflict the likes of which, Senator, we have never seen. Well, Jay, that's exactly right.

It is good to be with you today, but these are somber times. Israel is facing the greatest attack it has faced in over 50 years. On Saturday, the world witnessed the largest mass murder of Jews on any day since the Holocaust. What is happening in Israel is horrific.

We have over 900 Israelis murdered. These Hamas terrorists, they're murdering women, they're murdering children, they're murdering infants. They are raping women and young girls indiscriminately. They are murdering the elderly. They are taking children, women, and men hostage.

It is not only a grotesque act of war, they are committing war crimes and atrocities. And I have to say it is infuriating because this entire assault was funded by money that was sent by the Biden administration, by the American government. Since Joe Biden became President, he has released to Iran roughly $50 billion. And that money has gone directly to funding Hamas. Hamas is controlled by Iran. This act of war was directed by Iran. This act of war was planned by Iran. And this act of war was funded by the billions of dollars that Joe Biden and this administration flooded into Iran. Just like I and many others in Congress told them it would happen. That if he sent this money, it would be used for terrorism. We're seeing the horrific consequences of their actions.

You know, I also, I want to say this, that the fact of the matter is we know this. Hamas is just like Hezbollah. They're just proxies for Iran.

And Senator, I speculate that to get to the root of this, I mean, there'll be, you know, whether there's a ground incursion, which looks like it's likely, whether it is a ground takeover of Gaza, whatever it might be. Ultimately, you've got to get to the head of the snake. And the head of the snake here is Iran.

Yes. Look, that's unquestionably the case. And, you know, Joe Biden inherited an Iran that was weakened, that was on its knees, its economy. Its economy was in shambles. President Trump, in the most important foreign policy and national security decision of his presidency, had withdrawn from the disastrous Obama-Iran nuclear deal. Equally importantly, President Trump was vigorously enforcing the oil sanctions on Iran, and the result had crippled the Ayatollah. And Joe Biden, when he came in, refused to enforce those oil sanctions. He allowed the Ayatollah to make tens of billions of dollars. Right now, today, the Ayatollah is selling two million barrels of oil a day because Joe Biden and this administration desperately want to sign another nuclear deal with these theocratic monsters. And that revenue is what is funding this attack. It is because of the ignorance and radical ideology of the Biden White House that we are seeing these grotesque acts of war.

You know, Senator Cruz, this is Jordan. We're getting reports now from the IDF, this new level of brutality that Hamas has adopted, which is more similar to ISIS. You know, the rockets Israel working with the U.S. and the Iron Dome system were really able to limit the casualties inside Israel, the deaths inside Israel, and it was something they could almost live with. But with this invasion, we saw Hamas fighters not take on Israeli soldiers, but go into kibbutzes or farms, and they just found a new farm. They just went into a new kibbutz, the IDF, and they're finding them all over the countryside. Two hundred dead, including 30 babies killed by Hamas. 30 babies, entire families, mowed down in their beds. This new Hamas, funded by Iran, is operating a lot more like ISIS than any kind of military resistance that these Palestinian supporters want to call them.

Well, that's exactly right. This is at its heart a battle between civilization and barbarism. And the horrific atrocities that are being carried out by Hamas demonstrate that there's no justification for this. We've seen some Democrat members of Congress trying to suggest that these attacks are justified, trying to suggest we've seen the radical anti-Semitic squad of Democrats in the House accuse Israel in the midst of these attacks of being an apartheid state, which is a vicious blood libel. And we're going to see in the coming days, Democrats and much of the corporate media turn their criticism to Israel, begin attacking Israel. You know, hours after this invasion began, the U.S. State Department put out a tweet calling upon Israel to engage in a ceasefire, to have no military response.

They put it out at three in the morning. Within minutes, I called them out on Twitter, said it was absolutely despicable and that everyone involved in drafting and approving the tweet should be fired. I'm glad to say the State Department, within the hour, deleted the tweet.

But that is the view of the Biden administration. They want Israel simply to stand down and allow this invasion. And it's going to be critical for every one of us who love Israel, who defend Israel, to stand vigorously for Israel's right to self-defense, to go and destroy Hamas, to destroy the leadership of Hamas, to end this terrorist threat once and for all.

Now, I think this has got to be the time where you don't just neutralize, as they say, but you eliminate Hamas. I want to turn to the domestic aspect of this too, Senator, because this is a big concern, especially on the Ivy League campuses. And that is the anti-Israel sentiment that's coming out from one of your alma maters and that is Harvard and other universities too. This is despicable, what is taking place. And, of course, you've got inside the House of Representatives, the Democratic Socialist group, and they are, of course, spewing this hateful stuff. But out of the academy, the boycott, divest and sanction movement has matured, if you will, and we had it under check, but now it's back out of control again. And the major universities, these student groups are making these statements, they've been brainwashed by these professors to create this impression that Israel is the Satan when it's Hamas lopping off babies' heads in bedrooms of their families' houses and they're not calling them out. Well, sadly, many of our elite universities have become incubators and petri dishes for rabid anti-Semitism, for hatred of Israel, and more and more on the far left, anti-Semitism and hatred of Israel is normalized.

It is who they are. We see it in the U.S. House of Representatives with the Squad. We saw it a couple of years ago when Squad members made multiple anti-Semitic comments and Nancy Pelosi, then the Speaker of the House, tried to condemn anti-Semitism and she discovered the Democratic conference wouldn't vote in favor of a resolution condemning anti-Semitism.

The Democrats refused to sign on. You look at Harvard University this week, in the face of these war crimes, 31 student groups at Harvard University put out a statement blaming these attacks on Israel, saying it's Israel's fault. Apparently, Israel asked for its children to be raped and murdered. This is horrific, this is stupid, this is false, this is a lie, and this is evil, and sadly, our universities encourage this kind of radicalism. And where the heck is the leadership of Harvard?

Are there no professors there that believe anything? You have Lawrence Tribe, who's out there at the beginning of this, as these war crimes are happening, Lawrence Tribe said this was Benjamin Netanyahu wagging the dog and wanting to go to war. What idiocy, and how do these professors spew such rabidly anti-Israel sentiments? Senator, a final question for you is this. The Biden administration, as you said, they've been all over the place, they've been deleting tweets back and forth, it's not a clear message yet of where they are. What are you going to do with your fellow members of the Senate? I mean, there's a pretty good bipartisan support, it does appear, to support Israel. What can you all do together to get this administration to make sure that they do support Israel, or at least do everything it can, hope that they will? Well, I'm going to be leading the fight in the Senate to have Republicans and Democrats stand together with Israel. I'll tell you, when Joe Biden sent $16 billion to Iran as ransom for hostages, the Democrats didn't stand up to Biden then.

When the Biden administration sent hundreds of millions of dollars to Gaza after they concluded, it was highly likely it would go to Hamas for terrorism. I led 17 senators opposing that, not a single Democrat stood against it. So we need to stand now, say enough is enough, stop funding terrorists that hate Israel and that hate America. Senator Ted Cruz from Texas, thank you so much for everything you're doing. We look forward to working with you on this and getting at least the right statements coming out of the White House and out of the United States Congress. Senator, thank you so much. Hey folks, all of this is happening because of our ACLJ champions.

And this week, with all this going on in Israel, we want you to be a champion for Israel, and that is stand with Israel, be a champion for life, liberty, and freedom. You go to ACLJ.org. As I said yesterday, we were at the UN. Today, we're at the United States Congress.

Tomorrow, the European Council, the Council of Europe Intervention, and more legal matters coming on this, and we are prepared. Become an ACLJ champion. That means you donate each and every month to the ACLJ. Do it at ACLJ.org forward slash champions.

That's ACLJ forward slash champions to stand with the ACLJ and to stand with Israel. Welcome back to SECIO. Folks, the second half hour, we'll get to take more of your phone calls at 1-800-684-3110.

That's 1-800-684-3110. But we've wanted to spend this first half hour getting you fully up to speed with the best folks we can. One of those, of course, is a senior advisor to the ACLJ, former Secretary of State and CIA Director Mike Pompeo. Secretary Pompeo, first question to you. There's been a lot of talk about the hostages, and we even saw ceasefire talk tweeted out by the current Secretary of State and then deleted by the current Secretary of State. I know it's a complicating issue for Israel, extremely complicated issue for Israel, but at the same time, at what point, when you're dealing with a group this brutal, do you have to still go ahead with your military plan and not be held back by these ceasefires that the world may start pressuring Israel at any minute? Well, Jordan, a ceasefire is not going to solve the hostage problem. They're not connected in the direct way that some have suggested, like if the Israelis stood down, that the hostages would be returned. I'm sure there are conversations going on among lots of parties, Arab countries, the Israelis and the Hamas and the Iranians, their puppet masters, about how to get these hostages returned, what the prices that they're asking. But you know, this all happens against the backdrop of the United States paying a billion dollars to get five hostages home. The price to get these folks home, sadly, I think is going to be great.

And I am praying for not only the families, those who lost loved ones and had loved ones injured on October 7th, but those who have people held there today. The Israelis have a task to do. They need to make sure that something like this never happens again. And to do that, they're going to have to go take Hamas down, root and branch, and make sure that the organizational structure that has governed Gaza as a terrorist enclave for, goodness, at least a decade is dismantled in its entirety. You know, Mike, one of the things as you look at this, we know that Hamas is merely a proxy for Iran.

Hezbollah is a proxy for Iran. At the end of the day, if we don't deal with this at the highest level, and that may not be today for Israel to do, but dealing with Iran on this, which your administration had Iran on their knees, both economically, they were falling apart militarily, you eliminated a lot of their leadership. But if we don't deal with Iran now, and I say the United States has got to be part of this too, but also the greater Middle East, that's where this is originating out of.

There's no doubt about that. When we talk about Hamas, you can dismantle Hamas. This problem doesn't go away if Hamas goes away tomorrow. This problem remains because this problem emanates from Tehran. This problem emanates from the Islamic Republic of Iran, the theocracy, a bunch of thugs, the world's largest state sponsor, by far, who's on the cusp of having a nuclear-capable state.

This is going to require the whole world. And by the way, they threaten the whole world. They don't just threaten Israel. There's no doubt that's their priority to eliminate Israel from the face of the earth. But if they're the little Satan, we're the big Satan.

And we've seen this. Rockets fired from Yemen into the Emirates and Saudi Arabia. The Lebanese people had to succumb to the jackboot of the Iranian regime. Syria, same thing. I know this is an equal opportunity terrorist organization led in Tehran, and it will take the United States and the whole world to look it in the eye, to look this evil and say that appeasement has failed. We've tried this since at least the beginning of the Obama administration. We tried appeasement.

Write a check to them, be nice to them, invite them into the community of nations. It has epically failed to slow them down, as we can see from October 7th, and the world's going to have to confront this in a serious way. You know, Secretary Pompeo, Secretary Blinken has suspended his plans to visit the Middle East to negotiate what was going to be a formalizing of the ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia. I mean, that seems like a pretty big win right there for Iran. I mean, the fact that, again, it put the Saudis in a tough situation. It put Israel in, of course, a very difficult situation. And it's exactly what Iran wanted, which is to make sure that there was not that alliance between Israel and Saudi Arabia, especially that public alliance. I'm very confident that it may be for the moment that Iran got what it wanted for a week or two or six, but the direction of travel, the Gulf Arab states recognizing that simply making peace with Israel is in their own country's best interest for their own people, for their own security, for their own economies. I think that is not going to be changed by these events. Indeed, I think it will be empowered by these events. I think they'll see, nope, Iran is not to be trusted.

You can't play, you can't make nice with them. One of the reasons that these Arab states have had to go back and hedge their bets is because the Biden administration gave not $6 billion, that seems to be everyone's focus, but the Iranians have about $60 billion of access to capital. They didn't have just three years ago when we were in office. If you're if you're a Gulf Arab state and the United States is going to permit that kind of money to flow to that kind of regime, you are immediately trying to take down risk. If the United States will show the resolve, begin to put sanctions back in place and actually enforce them. Don't pay the Palestinians to continue to murder people in Israel. Pay for Saleh exists, and the Biden administration gave them $230 million to do it with. When we get U.S. policy right, we will get greater prosperity and peace in the Middle East, just the way we did during the Trump administration.

Let me ask you this. You've run the CIA, you've run the State Department. If you were in Benjamin Netanyahu's situation and looking at what he's dealing with, they're talking about, quote, an incursion into Gaza. I think it's going to be from people I'm talking to, much more than an incursion. There's talk of Gaza being, you know, Israel controlled Gaza for decades, handed it over and this is what they got. The handover didn't work. Do you take Gaza back?

I mean, is that should that be something at least on the table that the Israeli military and their chiefs of staff are talking about? You know, I don't want to give them advice. They're going to have to do that work. I pray that the Biden administration doesn't give them advice either. Tell them to stop.

That's what I'm really worried about it. Having said that, you cannot go back to where we were. Right. 2005 Israel, at the behest of the entire world, withdrew. They withdrew every settlement. They pulled their own.

They pulled great people from graves. They literally pulled entirely out of the Gaza Strip. And you can see what it brought them now, probably more than a couple thousand dead, 100 plus taken hostage, babies killed in the street.

You can't go back to this. Anybody who thinks that a two state solution is possible in light of what we have just seen, that Israel can actually permit terrorist organizations to exist on their border. That's just not the case. If the if the Palestinians in those two places, Judea and Samaria and the Gaza Strip, can't figure out how to overthrow those terror regimes, then there's a conversation to be had. While terrorists are still in charge, not just in Gaza, but Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank as well.

Yes. While terrorists are in charge, Israel's got to do its own work to protect its people. I think the idea of a two state solution is just my personal opinion, is I think that ended October 7th. I mean, I just I am just the practical reality of someone that's worked in the region a long time. You know, no one expected anything like this to ever take place during our lifetime.

And it did. Mike, we appreciate it, as always. Thanks for your insight.

Thanks for your help. Thank you all. All right, folks, let me just tell you this. Our office in Jerusalem is activated, obviously, but let me just tell you this also. We've hit the U.N. yesterday. The United States Congress, as we're on the air, we've been talking to our government affairs staff, James Ruckus and his team are delivering documents today to members of Congress, Democratic members of Congress that need to stand firm. And then tomorrow is a big day at the European Council, the Council of Europe. Our team in Strasbourg is handling that.

I suspect Thursday is going to be more of a domestic issue here. And we're looking at the law fair issues at the same time. This is a real reason for you to become an A.C.L.J.

champion, which is a monthly donor of the A.C.L.J. It's a unique move because we have that E.C.L.J. that we can work with the Council of Europe. You know, the U.S. has economic sanctions on Hamas and their designated terrorist organization, but the E.U.

wasn't able to because of three states. So we're going to try to change that. And then that would be about half the economy of the world stopped doing business with Hamas. That's because we have an office that's been dedicated to that work in Europe. Support the work of the A.C.L.J., be an A.C.L.J.

champion with that recurring donation, aclj.org slash champions. Keeping you informed and engaged. Now, more than ever, this is Sekulow. And now your host, Jordan Sekulow.

Welcome back to Sekulow. I hope that first half hour really got you up to speed with the experts that we've got here at the A.C.L.J., team members of the A.C.L.J., senators. We have relationships with literally getting cell phone calls from them right before the air. They want to come on.

They want to talk to you. They want to explain the situation as they know it and what the United States role should be in supporting Israel. And again, you've heard from U.S. Senator Ted Cruz. You heard from Mike Pompeo as a member of the A.C.L.J.

team. Coming up in the next segment of the broadcast, Bill Hagerty, U.S. Senator from Tennessee, is going to be joining us. We are going to be taking your phone calls as well. And so we want to get you to start calling in now. 1-800-684-3110.

That's 1-800-684-3110. We have not seen yet a ground incursion from Israel into the Gaza Strip, at least not on a massive scale. Whether or not there are special forces there or not, we don't know. But there was not an announcement yesterday by Israel, which some people expected to happen, by Prime Minister Netanyahu that a ground invasion has begun.

As of now, that has not started. Because the word siege for warfare, actually, does not mean necessarily a ground incursion. That's the cutoff of food, water, electricity, and fuel that is happening. So that is the siege. Now, if there is a ground incursion, and the expectations are there will be, that is in common parlance, that would be an invasion. But it's an invasion that was brought upon by their own actions of Hamas. That would take hundreds of thousands of troops. Gaza is not a large area, 25 miles, but a population of 2 million.

It's very dense. We've done cases at the International Criminal Court about warfare inside of Gaza. I was at the ICC in those years. It was 2010 and 2012 with the office of the prosecutor dealing with the incursion issue. They called it an NGO roundtable. We represented Israel's interests in that, and we had a private meeting with them afterwards. And so the warfare is very different there. But that is going to take probably another 24 to 48, I would say more like 48 to 72 hours to activate.

Remember, Israel had to activate its reserves. That's how they do this. So that's in place.

And again, we're taking legal action every day. We're taking phone calls also at 1-800-684-3110 if you want to give us a call. 800-684-3110. Yeah, we can take Kate's call out of Colorado online too.

And join us, folks. 1-800-684-3110. Any questions you have about what is happening in Israel with Iran's support, what happens next, we want to take those calls. So give us a call.

1-800-684-3110. And there's a lot to ask about. So don't feel bad with any questions you might have. It's a very complicated situation. Kate, welcome to Secular. You're on the air.

Hi, thank you for taking my call. And I just want to point out that if we dare think that we're not going to be hit by any of this, we must remember that we have no border. And all of these millions of people that have crossed over, this thing in Israel is so serious we should be ready for it to happen here. And maybe even on a bigger scale. We see all the uprisings with Palestinian, quote-unquote, folks. The demonstrations and everything. It is just really, really scary for some people. I understand.

And you know what, Kate? We know that at least 160 individuals on the terror watch list crossed the southern border in fiscal year 2023. That's the last numbers we have. 160 individuals on the terror watch list are inside the United States right now. They're not apprehended. They're inside the United States.

Let me repeat that again. 160 on the terror watch list. And then the FBI put out a report yesterday, which we're going to talk about later in the broadcast. We don't think there's any threats in the U.S. We're the great Satan. I mean, Iran is clear about that.

Israel, the little Satan, the U.S., the great Satan. It's easier for them to hit Israel. But remember, they've tried to kill Secretary Pompeo. They put a fatwa out on him.

They've tried to infiltrate his motorcades before. I mean, so again, this is very real, Kate. It's right.

We don't want to be back in that situation like we were with ISIS and terror attacks in the U.S., but we need a government that is least prepared for it so it doesn't happen with intelligence that stops it. We'll be right back. Welcome back to Secular. We are joined by U.S. Senator Bill Hagerty of Tennessee. He's a great friend of ours and a strong supporter of Israel. I was with the senator over the weekend as this attack began. Senator Hagerty, thank you for taking time out of your busy day to speak with our team and our audience for just a few minutes. As always, Jordan, I appreciate and respect so much your contributions.

So thank you for having me. Senator, first, your reaction to this, you know, it felt like Israel was caught off guard, but also the U.S. intelligence was caught off guard as well with the not just the rockets that are fired from Hamas that we've kind of gotten used to, but the level of preparation and the viciousness of this attack. Well, I think there's a lot of questions that need to be answered regarding the failure of intelligence, both on the U.S. side and the Israeli side.

As you know, our intelligence agencies pride themselves as do the Israeli intelligence agencies pride themselves at being the best. Clearly, they missed something big because everything that we're hearing is that Iran was deeply involved in training and setting this up. They should have been watching that for the attack to occur by land, air and sea.

That's a mass mobilization. There was a lot of movement that made that happen to get to weaponry in the hands of Hamas. All of this, again, needs to be understood much more deeply because, as you say, a huge intelligence failure right here. Senator, the other issue that came up and it's becoming more pronounced now is the ability of Hamas in the training of this. It looks like this exercise that they were engaged in was for about a year, maybe a year and a half, including the paragliders they were using, how to attack the villages, where these soft spots were with the Israeli villages and even on the security depots and where to hit. So the training on this was significant, but I think it's important for our audience to understand that as bad and evil as Hamas is, they are nothing more than a proxy for Iran. You're precisely correct about this, Jordan.

You and I talked about this before. For anybody to behave as though this is something that had happened on its own by Hamas, they're just in denial. Iran is behind this. This is the direct result of the Biden administration stepping into the fold. In the previous administration, we had Iran at the cusp of breaking the back of this terrorist organization, of putting in place a much more normal set of circumstances. The Biden administration has come in and undone everything the previous administration had done.

I was deeply involved in imposing secondary sanctions on the Iranian economy when I served as U.S. ambassador to Japan, getting Japan to stop buying Iranian crude. Those sorts of economic sanctions were having an effect. The Biden administration came in and lifted all of it by our estimates. The fact that the Biden administration has looked the other way on sanctions with respect to petroleum sales has enriched the Iranian regime between $25 and $50 billion. That's the excess capital that they've been able to bring in since Joe Biden took office, between $25 and $50 billion. Then again, you remember earlier this year, the Biden administration signed off on Iraq, making a $10 billion payment to Iran. I think there's been a lot of attention on the $6 billion hostage ransom, which is terrible, which should be withdrawn, but the Iranians have been enriching themselves all along the way. The Biden administration has facilitated this. It should be no surprise to intelligence agencies that they're using these funds to, again, instill terror.

Their motivation now is very obvious. It's clear that Israel was very close to bringing about a normalization agreement with Saudi Arabia. It was very close to happening at the end of the Trump administration.

Again, everybody held off to wait to see what the transition would be like, whether Trump would retain office when that wasn't the case. I think that put everything sideways, but they're getting back on track to having a deal. That's a deal between Iran and Israel that would have normalized relations there. It would have brought more peace to the Middle East. That's the last thing Iran wants to see.

That's the motivation for this. Yep, that deal with Saudi and Israel would have been, again, changed the entire world. I know it's also complicated because there are American citizens that may be hostages.

We don't know an exact number yet. We know Americans have been killed. There's been calls and tweets deleted from Secretary Blinken about ceasefires. I've seen even members on the other side of the aisle say this is not the time for a ceasefire. This is a time to let the Israelis decide what they need to do to disable Hamas. That is precisely the right answer, as you just described it, Jordan, and I was so embarrassed to see the Palestinian Affairs Office of the State Department immediately come out and plead for no retaliation. Why are they engaging themselves in this way after the worst attack on Israel? More Israeli lives lost, more Jewish lives lost since the Holocaust.

That's what took place during this initial attack. And for the United States to step out, the failure of diplomacy there with that office, which I don't believe should even exist, the fact that Secretary Blinken stepped up, talked about his call to Turkey to try to get them to get Hamas to stand down, implying, I guess, that he would put that same type of pressure on Israel. We need to step back and let Israel do what it needs to do.

They've always defended themselves. We have been supporting that, but we should make it clear that we do support it from a diplomatic standpoint, not have these sort of mixed messages that are coming in and confusing everything. Very good. Senator, we appreciate you being with us and appreciate your hard work on this issue. We look forward to working with you to a successful conclusion of a very difficult situation. Senator Hagerty from Tennessee, thanks so much. All right, folks, we're going to go right to the phones. It's great to have Senator Hagerty joining us today on the broadcast, but we want to hear from you as well. We'll go to Casey in Virginia first on line one. Hey, Casey, welcome to Secula. You're on the air.

Hey, thank you so much for having me and taking my question today. So I would like to know where is President Biden? He has not addressed our country of what's going on. We have 11 Americans that we know of have perished in this tragic terrorist attack, and we don't know if Americans are hostage.

I have family serving in the military, and I'm just concerned why we haven't been addressed as a country from our President. So the President is scheduled to address the nation about if you're listening to our broadcast live. About an hour, like any minute. You can make 20 minutes.

The next 20 minutes or so. What's been difficult is those from his administration that have made comments have all been in conflict. They've been saying one thing and then literally deleting it, the tweets. So, I mean, when you have that coming from your highest levels, your secretary of state, I want to play the absurdity from John Kirby. We play that because this is this is the National Security Council spokesperson, Casey. So he's the one advising the President on whatever the President's about to say today. And he got to ask this. But it was a Jake Tapper who asked him this.

Was it who asked him? Martha McCallum, who asked him this about the threat to the world right now? Take a listen to this. I want to play this soundbite for you that is just last month in Vietnam and ask you if this still holds for the President.

Watch. The only existential threat humanity faces, even more frightening than a nuclear war, is global warming going above 1.5 degrees in the next 20 to 10 years. Given all the nuclear players in these two areas where we are now engaged on, does the President stand by that comment?

Absolutely he does. Climate change is an existential threat. It can actually threatens and is capable of wiping out all human life on Earth over time. I mean, that's I don't know how more existential we can get to that, but that doesn't mean that we walk away from our obligations, our national security interests in very dangerous parts of the world. John, he said it was more frightening than a nuclear war. Is that it's more frightening than a nuclear war in this moment? The President believes wholeheartedly that climate change is an existential threat to the all of human life on the planet.

That's just science. That's a fact, Martha. But it doesn't mean that we turn our back on the other challenges facing this country and our allies and partners around the world. But when you don't have your priorities right, you end up going down this path. You know, Joe Biden's administration loses because of these kind of statements and these kind of policies. And you know, when we say policies have consequences, folks, policies have consequences. And look in the world we're in, Russia's fighting with Ukraine, China about to invade Taiwan, the Middle East imploding. When we were at the Abraham Accords in the previous administration, now we're looking at, you know, a Middle East conflict that we've never seen in our lifetime taking place right now. By the way, I don't like calling this a terrorist attack. Hamas is a military.

They have a military wing. This isn't like two terrorists that grabbed an airplane, which is horrible in and of itself. This was an orchestrated attack by another government. Hamas is the government in control of Gaza. And if I was Benjamin Netanyahu and I know there's consequences, I'd go in there and I'd root it out and I'd take that territory back and say it will never happen again. They are under Israel's control, period. And if the Palestinians that are there don't play by the law, then go find another place to play. But you cannot play when you're destroying and killing and taking actions against children and women and grandparents.

This is absurd. And what we need to point out what it is, okay, these are terrorists. It's a lot more than a terrorist. This is a hostile government has attacked the only free government in the Middle East, our biggest ally.

So I'm glad that they put the Gerald Ford Naval Military Action Group moving towards the Mediterranean. I hope it's not necessary to use it. But I got to tell you something. Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel, in my view, has no option. He has to go in and end this. You can't just, you know, neutralize it.

You've got to root it out, gone. And that may mean action against Iran. Folks, that's where you come in. We're engaging on all these on a legal basis and on a policy basis. You can be an ACLJ champion and really help us out. Stand with Israel. Be a champion for life, liberty, and freedom.

And that applies to Israel as well. By going to ACLJ.org slash champions and your monthly donations, your recurring support makes you an ACLJ champion standing with us. My goal is that in the course of the next 12 months, we double the number of champions we have. We're starting with 15,000. We're at about 16,000 now. We've almost added 1,000. We're going to continue that.

ACLJ.org slash champions. Welcome back to Second Hill. We're taking your calls to 1-800-684-3110.

That's 1-800-684-3110. I do want to play sound too, and he'll be on the broadcast tomorrow because there is bipartisan support for Israel. And I think that that's at a time when there's not a lot of bipartisan support for many things. It's important to point out, one of my friends, a fraternity brother of mine at GW, is a congressman, Jared Moskowitz, a Democrat. I disagree with him on a lot of things, but he's also the emergency management director for Ron DeSantis in Florida. So, again, he's not someone who is afraid to work across the aisle. He's a very strong supporter of Israel. He was on Fox News yesterday.

And I want to just play this for you in his interview. Take a listen. We've seen Israel's 9-11. It's the worst terrorist attack in Israeli history. It's the largest number of Jews murdered since the Holocaust. To see babies killed, children kidnapped, women raped next to their dead spouse, it's just horrific. To see a Holocaust survivor taken as a hostage, I mean, the folks in my community are outraged. I mean, Jews are never going back to those days. And this is barbaric behavior like we have not seen in Israel in a very long time, if not ever.

And so my community is outraged. They want to see the world unite around Israel. There is going to be a significant response from the Israelis. Now is not the time for calls for any ceasefire. And we've got to get these hostages back if we can. And I know Israel, the United States, is doing everything they can. You know, what the congressman said there is very important is that this is not a time for ceasefire. And that has got to be underscored.

That would be a very dangerous move. And I think that has actually been muted out. But getting Democrats to speak out on this is important, folks. We don't want this to be a partisan issue. There's no reason for this standing with Israel here to be a partisan issue, period.

No. Babies being executed should not be partisan. Again, they're our ally. And when they're under attack, we've got to stand with them. I mean, again, look what we've done for Ukraine, who was not really a direct ally of the United States. It was a country that we were trying to work with.

It was not yet a NATO member and had a lot of corruption problems. And we've sent them, you know, billions and billions of dollars. And we don't even know where the money's gone. And yet when it comes to Israel, it'll be interesting today to see if we can even understand what Joe Biden's position is. I hope we do.

I hope so, too. We're going to find out soon. Because his secretary of state, who is not the same age as Biden, Secretary Blinken, he's been speaking out of both sides of his mouth. He said, you know, ceasefire.

He deletes it. I mean, it has been a disaster so far from the administration. It has taken Democrat members of Congress... To hold them accountable.

Yeah, to hold them accountable. We're working with them, too, by the way, okay? The ACLJ, we'll cross the aisle. We're not Republican-Democrat here.

It's policy and law. So we're working with both sides on this. All right, let's go ahead and go take some phone calls at 800-684-3110. Yeah, Joanne, caller from Ohio online, too. Hey, Joanne.

Hi, guys. My question is, I heard Congressman Walz from Florida yesterday, and I kind of agree with him. Do we really believe that this is an intelligence failure? Isn't this maybe just, oops, we overlooked it based on the way we've treated Israel since Biden's been in office? Let's go to the intelligence failure on two levels, and I said this was not the week to really address this, because historically, let me tell you, someone has studied Israel for much of my life and have done postdoctoral work on Israel. Traditionally, when Israel has been surprised in battle, and it most recently would have been 50 years ago to the day that this attack took place, was the Yom Kippur War, it was a huge intelligence failure. I think Israel had a huge intelligence failure. So, yes, I do think Israel had a huge intelligence failure, and they are the regional partner in this. So a lot of the U.S. intelligence that we would be gathering would be in cooperation with the Israelis. So, obviously, I think there was a significant intelligence failure here, period. Yeah, we don't know where that was. Was it someone planted inside with bad information?

Is it disinformation? Is it other countries involved? I mean, that's something that has to be figured out later. Right now, what has to be figured out is the response. And remember, it will be more and more difficult as each day passes to stay with Israel, not for us, not for you, the listener, but for the administration, the Biden administration, for the European countries. And we're working on it. And for the world. And we know that whatever Israel decides to do, they will be condemned for doing it. Our team in Strasbourg, our European Center for Law and Justice, will be at the Council of Europe tomorrow intervening on this very issue. Our team will be there on the floor of the Council of Europe working on these resolutions. All right, let's go ahead and take Nancy's call from Arizona on Line 1.

Nancy, go ahead, you're on the air. Yes, my questions are to the Biden administration is, is the Biden administration making the sole decision to determine the amount of funds they're sending to places like Palestine, Ukraine, and maybe other countries who despise us? And the other question is, doesn't Congress have to give approval for expenditures of tax dollars?

Why isn't that happening? And what can we do? It's not light on them, so that's the problem.

Not light items. The President has, you know, 30, there's the 30 days when there's conflict, and then 60 days before you even have to notify Congress. Yeah, and remember, on foreign policies, exclusively within the jurisdiction of the executive under the Constitution. Yeah, I mean, Congress has the power of the purse, but there's plenty of purse there. The purse is already there. That's the issue.

It was already out. These are allocated funds. All they're saying is they're freeing up funds that were basically frozen.

So that's how they got around that. That's a good question. Mike is calling from Pennsylvania on line three.

Mike, go ahead. See a political question, guys. Senator Graham mentioned it would be a decent idea or consideration to take out the refineries in Iran to send a signal.

And everybody sort of agrees that they're the catalyst behind this. So the question is, what's the problem? Why not do it, obviously, covertly, the CIA mission or special ops or via Israel? Why not? First of all, here's what it would take. Israel cannot do that alone. I mean, do they have the capabilities?

Yes. But they can't do it alone originally. But right now, they just face the most Jews killed in a single day since the Holocaust. They are fighting a much smaller group than Iran itself with the Gaza Strip, and that's taking most of their military and equipment and attention right now. So that would mean very direct U.S. involvement.

And regional partners, too. We're talking U.S. fighter jets taking those refineries out, partnering with other countries. I mean, so you're talking about a major conflict. I'm not saying you have to go on the ground, but Iran is going to fire back. And I'm not sure today Israel would want Iran firing much larger weapons than Hamas has at Israel. Without the backing of the rest of the free world, making sure... So just taking out a couple refineries?

Doesn't do anything. That's not going to stop Iran. I mean, you'd have to take out the lead. I don't like these regime change talks. But I mean, I think at that point, you'd have to have a U.S. commitment that, again, you'd have to take to the American people.

We're not at that point yet. We're able to bring you a broadcast like this five days a week because of your support of the American Center for Law and Justice. We're in a very unique campaign over the next year, and that is our ACLJ Champions.

We want you, because of what's going on, to stand with Israel, be a champion for Israel for life, freedom, and liberty. You go to ACLJ.org slash champions. What a champion is, is someone that stands with us with a donation each and every month. So these are our monthly donors that contribute on a recurring basis. You can become an ACLJ champion. We encourage you to do it. Go to ACLJ.org forward slash champion to stand with Israel, to stand with us as we fight for freedom, liberty, and life. We'll talk to you tomorrow.