After the Biden Administration’s disastrous withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, Secretary of State Antony Blinken will appear in two hearings – one by the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the other at the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee – about the way it was handled. The American people have many questions that demand answers. For instance, why was Secretary Blinken silent when President Biden pulled U.S. troops from Afghanistan when officials knew that it would be taken over by the Taliban immediately? And why were troops removed before evacuating state employees?
These are just some of the many questions that need to be answered. ACLJ Director of Policy Harry Hutchison mentioned more things that we need to find out in these hearings:
"In addition, I would like the Secretary of State to explain whether he believes there was indeed an intelligence failure or, on the other hand, was there a failure of will by the Biden Administration to leave no American behind? He also needs to explain his rationale for not opposing the Bagram Air Force decision, basically to close that Air Force base before withdrawing, or better said, surrendering to the Taliban. In addition to all of that of course, we need to know how many Afghans were admitted to the United States without vetting for security purposes and without vetting for purposes of COVID infections. So, there are questions that need to be answered. My big fear is that Secretary of State Blinken will engage in his usual duplicity and try not to answer questions directly. I hope that Members of Congress will press him vigorously and demand real answers and also demand access to cables and other information which will either confirm Blinken’s claims or perhaps basically suggest he is fibbing once again."
Hopefully, Sec. Blinken does answer directly, but it doesn’t look likely after Republican staff have claimed they have an audio recording of him at the Hamptons shifting the blame of the outcome of the Afghanistan withdrawal to other senior Biden officials. When he is testifying face to face in front of Congress, he will have no one else to blame.
After all of the criticism the Biden Administration has faced over the withdrawal out of Afghanistan, President Biden tried to defend himself:
"If you had told anybody that we were going to spend 300 million bucks a day for 20 years to try to unite the country after we got Bin Laden, after al-Qaeda was wiped out there – can al-Qaeda come back? Yeah. But guess what? It’s already back in other places. What’s the strategy? Every place where al-Qaeda is we’re going to invade and have troops stay there? Come on."
The idea that this decision was about money is ironic considering President Biden is asking for $3.5 trillion dollars right now for infrastructure. Harry Hutchison pointed out this strategy used by President Biden:
"Basically, it is a bait and switch approach by President Biden. He is pushing an initiative which would restructure so many areas of the country under this $3.5 trillion-dollar Green New Deal approach. And then he wants to restructure voting in the U.S. He is now slamming the state of Texas with respect to abortion. It goes on and on. He is a purpose without principle at least in my limited experience with him. . . . I think, because at his core, I think you will find a very empty suit. At the end of the day, I think the American people should make their own decisions, but they should not rely on President Biden’s analysis."
It’s very important to hold these leaders accountable for the choices they made. We know all the facts. We know that President Biden left Americans behind in a dangerous situation. We know we closed an airbase down before we were done using it. We know we were warned that the Taliban would take over before they actually did. So, now we need to know, how did this happen? We’ve already filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request and we will be monitoring these hearings to find out the answer to all of these questions.
Today’s full Sekulow broadcast is complete with even more analysis of Sec. of State Antony Blinken’s upcoming hearings.
After her shocking testimony before Congress yesterday, U.S. Secret Service Director Kim Cheatle has resigned. Will we get answers about the massive security failure that almost resulted in President Donald Trump losing his life? The Sekulow team discusses the USSS director’s resignation, Vice President Kamala Harris securing enough delegates to be the 2024 presidential nominee, the ACLJ’s legal work – and much more.
Apparently, the Secret Service had already increased its efforts to protect President Donald Trump after recent intelligence surfaced of an Iranian plot to assassinate the former President. So why was security so lax in Butler, Pennsylvania? The Sekulow team discusses the massive Secret Service failure, the Republican National Convention, Trump’s pick of Senator J.D. Vance as Vice President, other RNC news, a new ACLJ FOIA against the Biden Administration, the 2024 presidential election – and much more.
President Joe Biden isn’t planning on going anywhere, as more and more within the Democrat Party call for him not to run for reelection. He wrote a letter to Democrats in the House of Representatives calling for unity in the fight to defeat President Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election. The Sekulow team discusses Biden’s letter and the turmoil surrounding his White House campaign, the reaction to Biden’s interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos, the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on presidential immunity, Judge Aileen Cannon’s latest move in Trump’s classified documents case, the ACLJ’s legal work – and much more.
Due to the U.S. Supreme Court’s presidential immunity ruling, Judge Juan Merchan delayed the sentencing in President Donald Trump’s New York trial until September 18. Will DA Alvin Bragg be forced to reopen the trial after much of his evidence included “official acts” from when Trump was President?
The delayed sentencing date is huge for two reasons. First, much of the far Left hoped that the attention would shift from President Biden’s poor debate performance to Trump’s original sentencing date of July 11. And as we said last week, it will not be good news for President Biden if the media is still talking about replacing him after the long Independence Day weekend.
Right now, the narrative isn’t shifting for Biden. Yesterday, the primary topic at White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre’s press conference was President Biden’s fitness for office. Also, an internal Democrat election poll was leaked that sounded the alarm for Biden’s reelection in swing states, and Trump is way ahead in fundraising now following the debate.
The second reason that the delayed sentencing is significant comes from Judge Juan Merchan’s letter regarding the delayed sentencing: “The Court’s decision will be rendered off-calendar on September 6, 2024, and the matter is adjourned to September 18, 2024, at 10:00 AM for the imposition of sentence, if such is still necessary, or other proceedings.”
Did you catch the important nugget: “if such is still necessary, or other proceedings”? In other words, the Supreme Court’s decision could derail Bragg’s case altogether. Within hours of the Justices’ decision, Trump’s lawyers contested this issue, setting off the chain of events leading to the delayed sentencing – a lot of movement happened quickly.
Bragg had presented a broad case that ignored expired statutes of limitations and elevated what would have been a misdemeanor into 34 felony counts. Yet by going so broad, Bragg might have tanked his case completely by presenting evidence that would now be considered inadmissible.
Trump’s lawyers filed a brief to have the jury’s verdict vacated, and the other side will be filing a brief in response. Judge Merchan will review the briefs (which the caveat “if such is still necessary” refers to) before the sentencing date. The judge might not have a reason to sentence President Trump at all.
The Biden Administration has come out swinging against the recent videos of President Biden freezing up that are circulating online. The latest video to spark controversy was at the Hollywood fundraiser over the weekend. President Obama took Biden by the wrist and led the President offstage after he froze up and looked lost. Other recent footage includes Biden appearing confused at a D-Day ceremony, an early Juneteenth ceremony, and the G-7 summit.
At a press conference on Monday, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre claimed the videos are “cheap fakes.” But are they?
Each of these hiccups occurred at a well-publicized Biden event. They weren’t secret, behind-closed-doors meetings. Everyone witnessed what happened to Biden on the public stage.
Yet instead of simply addressing the freeze-ups as the result of President Biden being an elderly man and that such occurrences are bound to happen, the Administration insists on gaslighting Americans. It wants to spin the narrative as a conspiracy by political opponents to make Biden look weak.
Playing off the term “deep fake,” which refers to AI-generated content, Biden’s handlers are saying the videos in question are manipulated and/or edited, calling them “cheap fakes.” And now the mainstream media is following the White House’s talking points about these videos being fake.
For example, on Sekulow, we played a clip of former White House Communications Director Nicolle Wallace commenting on the controversy, yet MSNBC didn’t show the full footage of Biden’s freezing up at the Hollywood event. Ironically, the real “cheap fakes” are coming from the mainstream media.
ACLJ Senior Advisor for National Security and Foreign Policy Ric Grenell commented on the mainstream media’s attempt to cover up the truth about Biden’s mental state:
The propaganda arm of the Democratic Party, the media in America, is really in a dangerous situation. They are helping a regime – hook, line, and sinker. They always take the side of the Democrats. They push the Democratic messaging; they’ve lost their credibility. I can promise you that dictators around the world are looking at the control that the Democratic Party has over the media in America, and they’re jealous. Because with every single thing we see, we can watch a video, and the media says you’re not watching this the right way or it’s a fake. And so many in the media repeat that.
If you’ve read George Orwell’s 1984, you will be familiar with the famous line: “The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.” In Orwell’s dystopian novel, the government controls all truth regardless of what the people have seen and heard for themselves. The Biden Administration is using the mainstream media to enact the same Orwellian tactics on the public. It is even using Orwellian Newspeak terms like “cheap fake.”
The White House will do its best to spin the truth about President Biden, but the American people can watch the videos and decide for themselves.
After the Biden Administration’s disastrous withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, Secretary of State Antony Blinken will appear in two hearings – one by the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the other at the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee – about the way it was handled. The American people have many questions that demand answers. For instance, why was Secretary Blinken silent when President Biden pulled U.S. troops from Afghanistan when officials knew that it would be taken over by the Taliban immediately? And why were troops removed before evacuating state employees?
These are just some of the many questions that need to be answered. ACLJ Director of Policy Harry Hutchison mentioned more things that we need to find out in these hearings:
"In addition, I would like the Secretary of State to explain whether he believes there was indeed an intelligence failure or, on the other hand, was there a failure of will by the Biden Administration to leave no American behind? He also needs to explain his rationale for not opposing the Bagram Air Force decision, basically to close that Air Force base before withdrawing, or better said, surrendering to the Taliban. In addition to all of that of course, we need to know how many Afghans were admitted to the United States without vetting for security purposes and without vetting for purposes of COVID infections. So, there are questions that need to be answered. My big fear is that Secretary of State Blinken will engage in his usual duplicity and try not to answer questions directly. I hope that Members of Congress will press him vigorously and demand real answers and also demand access to cables and other information which will either confirm Blinken’s claims or perhaps basically suggest he is fibbing once again."
Hopefully, Sec. Blinken does answer directly, but it doesn’t look likely after Republican staff have claimed they have an audio recording of him at the Hamptons shifting the blame of the outcome of the Afghanistan withdrawal to other senior Biden officials. When he is testifying face to face in front of Congress, he will have no one else to blame.
After all of the criticism the Biden Administration has faced over the withdrawal out of Afghanistan, President Biden tried to defend himself:
"If you had told anybody that we were going to spend 300 million bucks a day for 20 years to try to unite the country after we got Bin Laden, after al-Qaeda was wiped out there – can al-Qaeda come back? Yeah. But guess what? It’s already back in other places. What’s the strategy? Every place where al-Qaeda is we’re going to invade and have troops stay there? Come on."
The idea that this decision was about money is ironic considering President Biden is asking for $3.5 trillion dollars right now for infrastructure. Harry Hutchison pointed out this strategy used by President Biden:
"Basically, it is a bait and switch approach by President Biden. He is pushing an initiative which would restructure so many areas of the country under this $3.5 trillion-dollar Green New Deal approach. And then he wants to restructure voting in the U.S. He is now slamming the state of Texas with respect to abortion. It goes on and on. He is a purpose without principle at least in my limited experience with him. . . . I think, because at his core, I think you will find a very empty suit. At the end of the day, I think the American people should make their own decisions, but they should not rely on President Biden’s analysis."
It’s very important to hold these leaders accountable for the choices they made. We know all the facts. We know that President Biden left Americans behind in a dangerous situation. We know we closed an airbase down before we were done using it. We know we were warned that the Taliban would take over before they actually did. So, now we need to know, how did this happen? We’ve already filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request and we will be monitoring these hearings to find out the answer to all of these questions.
Today’s full Sekulow broadcast is complete with even more analysis of Sec. of State Antony Blinken’s upcoming hearings.