The Drill Down with Peter Schweizer

Qatar vs Qvar

Clinton Cash - A Decade of Impact With Special Guest Steve Bannon

Even for non-Catholics, the pope is a figure of world significance who can affect politics in every nation around the globe, as Francis, the first pope from Latin America, clearly did. On the latest episode of The Drill Down, hosts Peter Schweizer and Eric Eggers of the Government Accountability Institute avoid theology but instead follow the money the church received from the Biden administration, and it leads to the church's role in the immigration crisis in the US.

The Trump administration's fight with elite universities might be its toughest yet because it's about money—federal research funds that have been given to major universities for decades. On the most recent podcast of The Drill Down, host Peter Schweizer approves of the effort: “We say that's a good thing.” President Donald Trump's budget hawks seek to cut wasteful spending, but that is only part of their goal. What they really want is to see elite universities return to merit-based admissions and viewpoint diversity in faculty and students, an end to campus antisemitism and elimination of so-called diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts.

No one likes tax time, but one fresh character might offer at least some entertainment. Former congressman Billy Long of Missouri, who famously deployed his skills as a professional auctioneer on the House floor during a debate, is President Donald Trump's pick to lead the Internal Revenue Service after its acting director Melanie Krause resignation over the administration's effort to use tax information to identify people in the country illegally. On the most recent episode of The Drill Down, co-hosts Peter Schweizer and Eric Eggers take a post-tax filing deadline look at the history of the IRS being used to go after political opponents.

President Donald Trump unveiled a full slate of eye-popping tariffs on countries large and small last Friday, and the reactions over the weekend have been intense. Welcome to “Tariff Panic Week.” Many people have noted the precipitous drop in the stock market and their own IRAs since the tariffs were announced. One reporter who questioned Trump aboard Air Force One over the weekend even asked him whether he'd call off the tariffs if the Dow Jones index kept dropping. “That's a stupid question,” Trump snapped.

What do Big Pharma ads on TV and Diet Coke have in common? Both are targets of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., the new head of the Health and Human Services department. In his early efforts to press the “Make America Healthy Again,” Kennedy has singled out two seemingly different issues: those ubiquitous television ads for pharmaceuticals, and whether people on federal food assistance programs should be able to buy soda and junk food on the taxpayer dime.

The new administration of Donald Trump has been a whirlwind of activity in its first one hundred days but is running into resistance from men in black – activist federal judges.

As DOGE's efforts shift to eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse in social welfare problems including SNAP, Social Security, and Medicaid, The Drill Down podcast welcomes a nationally recognized expert in spotting how those programs are rife with fraud. Andrew McClenahan is, among other things, intergovernmental committee co-chair for an organization called the United Council on Welfare Fraud, and has investigated fraud in the food stamp program, including one bust several years ago that stopped a $100 million fraud scheme in South Florida. The group is made up of welfare fraud investigators from every state.

If you think you know how bad things are in California, you don't. If you think you know how corrupt the state's leading politicians are, it's worse than that. Sticky-fingered pols pushing woke policies have turned the Golden State into fool's gold. That's the title of a new book out March 11 by two investigative reporters—Susan Crabtree of RealClearPolitics, and the Government Accountability Institute's own Jedd McFatter. Fool's Gold: The Radicals, Con Artists, and Traitors Who Killed the California Dream and Now Threaten Us All exposes the shocking truth behind California's fall from grace, and how progressives want to do it to the rest of the nation. The book exposes the corruption of California's leading Democratic lights—Gov. Gavin Newsom, Sen. Adam Schiff, former Vice President Kamala Harris, and former House speaker Nancy Pelosi.

“Tooth and tail.” That's the phrase new defense secretary Pete Hegseth uses to describe how money is spent (and wasted) by the Pentagon. It captures the difference between spending money to support warfighters and spending it on the mushrooming support operations that are supposed to keep the troops ready.

In the annals of government reform efforts, the efforts of Elon Musk and his task force of DOGE techies are more than tough love. Because the so-called Department of Government Efficiency has (mostly) been given access to the books of government agencies, it has spotted billions of dollars in questionable grants, make-work programs, and outright gifts to politically connected activists who provided political support to their government paymasters. On the most recent episode of The Drill Down, hosts Peter Schweizer and Eric Eggers discuss a few examples, but also address a deeper question: “So what?”

The New Face of Resistance - Lobbying Against Trump Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Everybody Hurts - DOGE Beats Down on the Swamp Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As the nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. goes to the full Senate, healthy food activist and entrepreneur Vani Hari is thrilled by the attention his focus on “Making America Healthy Again” is getting. Through her blog, called FoodBabe, she and has been a relentless advocate for healthier, safer products from America's largest food companies, and frustrated by the capture of the Food and Drug Administration by lobbyists for Big Food. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Is DeepSeek really a deep con? A psyop tossed out to shake up the financial markets? The release of a Chinese-made artificial intelligence engine called DeepSeek sent a bulldozer through Wall Street this week. Rival AI companies lost hundreds of billions of dollars in market value after sell-offs, once the new kid came on the block. But as Peter Schweizer and Eric Eggers note on this episode of The Drill Down, the timing is suspicious. “This could be a replay of the lab leak back in 2020,” Schweizer says. “We're going to simply discuss the reality of how this thing unfolded, the claims that were made, the claims that are not true.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On his way out the door of the White House, former President Joe Biden pardoned five members of his family not named “Hunter.” All five – brother James and his wife, Sara; sister Valerie and her husband, John; and brother Frank – were implicated in various influence-peddling schemes just like the previously pardoned Hunter. It was Joe Biden's last act of loyalty… to his family co-conspirators. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Schweizer: The Only Opinion on TikTok That Counts is China's Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's a tale of three attacks. The murderous rampage through the French Quarter, the explosion of a Tesla Cybertruck in Las Vegas, and the fourth anniversary of the Jan. 6 riot at the US Capitol. To a former FBI and Justice department guy like Kenneth Strange, who spent time on the Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF), each of those incidents are very different, with unique causes and motives. Strange believes the FBI has lost its way and allowed political pressure to distort how it allocates its resources. He joins Peter Schweizer and co-host Eric Eggers on the most recent episode of The Drill Down. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Pictures make ideas real. And portraits make people real. Artist and photographer Dan Fleuette joins the Drill Down to describe how he creates art through personalities on the political right. A self-described “art school lunatic,” Fleuette was the artist that turned Peter Schweizer's bestselling investigative book Clinton Cash into both a documentary and even a graphic novel. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bill and Hillary Clinton were once masters of the “dark arts” of politics – spinning history and enriching themselves while running a global charity that became famous as a grift machine. Their skill even had a name: “The Clinton Blur.” Though long out of office himself, former President Bill Clinton is at it again. “The news for GAI is that Bill Clinton is back,” says author Peter Schweizer, whose 2015 bestseller Clinton Cash exposed the financial shenanigans behind the Clinton Global Initiative. “Bill's back, he's mad, and he's mad at me!” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The cold-blooded murder of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson has produced some ugly reactions. Liberal politicians and commentators seized upon Thompson's murder as an excuse to complain about insurance companies. But their outrage should be directed at the federal government, says Seamus Bruner on the most recent episode of The Drill Down. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Joe Biden's blanket pardon of his son, Hunter, was really a proxy pardon for the whole Biden family that hamstrings ongoing investigations into Biden family influence peddling schemes, according to Peter Schweizer. In the latest episode of the Drill Down podcast, Schweizer points out that the schemes implicated not just Hunter but Joe himself, his brothers Frank and James, and other members of the Biden family. The pardon, “historically unprecedented” in its scope, is “a stunning acknowledgment of how corrupt this family is,” Schweizer says. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Storming the Ivory Tower - A Call for Educational Reform with Richard Corcoran Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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The Rightward Shift - Analyzing National Trends Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

He's the man with the biggest influence over the last several elections that you've probably never heard of. His influence over how Americans vote, and how those votes are counted, has made him a Democratic “super-lawyer,” and his handiwork has been on elections around the country for more than a decade. He is a man who understands that elections can be won in the days or weeks after voting has completed. He is Democratic election law specialist Marc Elias, and he's the topic on the last pre-election episode of The Drill Down with Peter Schweizer. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Deep State's Role in Modern Politics Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A Deep Dive Into Election Integrity Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Politics of Disaster Relief Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Smurfing the Election - What does it mean? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With Joe Biden forced out of the presidential race, why should anyone still care about the corruption story that implicated him, his brothers, and his son, Hunter Biden? Because “the same people in the same crooked institutions that protected him and allowed him and his family to do business and make millions of dollars from our adversaries, particularly from China, are still there,” journalist Miranda Devine declares on the latest episode of the Drill Down podcast. “They're still committing bad deeds. They still have mal-intent and they still don't have America's best interests at heart,” Devine tells co-hosts Peter Schweizer and Eric Eggers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Battle Over Truth in Politics Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In yet another strange turn in this strangest of political seasons, former President Trump touched on a claim that has been making the rounds on social media posts showing video footage of Springfield residents complaining that Haitian refugees are dining out on the local goose and cat population. The city manager of the town, who is also responsible for running the refugee resettlement program that brought the Haitians to Springfield, has denied the problem exists. Peter Schweizer and Eric Eggers consider the Springfield issue in the latest episode of the Drill Down podcast. While they take no position on the cat-and-goose claim, they note that there really is a problem in Springfield for which the Biden-Harris Administration bears some responsibility. The co-hosts noted that the Biden administration placed 20,000 Haitian refugees in Springfield, a town with a pre-refugee population of 59,000. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hot Yoga or NASCAR Voters Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kamala Harris's Connections and Integrity Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Big Government Intrudes on Everything Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Democratic vice-presidential candidate Tim Walz has for years embellished his military service in the National Guard, as reports based on statements from those who served with him have shown. There are also lingering questions about Walz's long history of association with the Communist Party of China (CCP). Now there are new questions about the investment activities of Minnesota's state pension fund under Walz's leadership. Peter Schweizer, host of The Drill Down podcast, and co-host Eric Eggers, review the “troubling questions” on the most recent episode. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kamala Harris's selection of Minnesota governor Tim Walz as her running mate raises many troubling questions about Walz's connections to Communist China, notes Peter Schweizer in the most recent episode of The Drill Down podcast. Schweizer and co-host Eric Eggers welcome Fox Business commentator Charlie Gasparino to the show to discuss the Walz selection, as well as Gasparino's new book on wokeness inside American corporations – and politics. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Government Distrust and Skepticism With Gerald Posner Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

President Joe Biden's mysterious announcement ending his campaign for re-election invites comparisons to the politics of 1968, but Peter Schweizer sees another comparison – to the politics of 2008. Schweizer calls it the “Obama coup” on the most recent episode of The Drill Down podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On the most recent episode of The Drill Down, Schweizer and co-host Eric Eggers agree that Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle should be fired. The attempt on Trump's life this past weekend in Butler County, Pennsylvania exposed the failure of Trump's Secret Service detail to properly secure the venue where Trump spoke. Five minutes into his speech, shots were fired from the roof of a building just 150 yards from the dais, and Trump's life was spared likely because he had turned his head to point at a screen just as a bullet was fired. The Secret Service has come under universal criticism for not guarding that building. “Heads have got to roll,” Schweizer said. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As Biden dead-enders battle with Democrats trying to push the President off of the Democratic ticket, investigative journalist Peter Schweizer says he's seen enough: “Joe Biden will not be the Democratic nominee,” Schweizer says on the most recent episode of the Drill Down podcast. “He will be forced to step down by the big money.” Schweizer and co-host Eric Eggers, fresh from guest-hosting Sean Hannity's radio show, note the pledges of loyalty to Biden from left-wing Democrats such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York contrast sharply with rising voices of ten party moderates in Congress, many of them senior members, calling for Biden to step aside. Sen. John Tester (D-MT), who is in a tough re-election fight this Fall, is among those calling for Biden to pack it in. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After President Joe Biden's disastrous performance in the debate last week, Democratic politicos have been frantically gaming out alternatives to a Biden candidacy against former President Donald Trump. The media wing of the Democratic Party, shocked by Biden's feeble performance, has editorialized for the 81-year-old Biden to step aside. Once-reliable media mouthpieces such as Joe Scarborough of MSNBC, who just weeks ago told his viewers that the octogenarian was “the best Biden ever,” walked it all back the morning after the debate and glumly observed, “if [Biden] were CEO, and he turned in a performance like that, would any corporation in America keep him on as CEO?” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Boeing Co. has had more than its share of struggles in the past few years. The airplane and aerospace manufacturing giant has become a national joke owing to quality problems on its commercial aircraft that resulted in bolts missing or loose on cabin doors and other mishaps. Most recently, Boeing is being called to account by Congress for problems related to the Starliner, which recently got stuck at the International Space Station. For Peter Schweizer, host of The Drill Down, Boeing's problems are personal. He grew up in the Seattle area, where his father, an immigrant from Switzerland, worked as an engineer at Boeing for more than 30 years designing wing flaps and the hydraulic components that operate them. Boeing in the 1970s and 1980s was a different company, before its merger with aerospace company McDonnell-Douglas, but he remembers a proud company pursuing excellence and innovation in everything it did. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Two connected news stories from the past week show how illegal immigration into the United States is changing the country, and that the Biden administration seems to want it that way. Mexico's National Institute of Migration reported this week that between January and May of this year, nearly 1.4 million undocumented immigrants from a staggering 177 countries traveled through Mexico to the United States. At the same time, the Biden administration announced a new policy that will grant legal protections to about 500,000 illegal immigrants already in the United States against deportation, if they are spouses of citizens. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The big news this week was Hunter Biden's conviction by a Delaware jury on three federal felony gun charges. For Peter Schweizer, though, that looks more like pulling over a bank robber to give him a speeding ticket. The jury took three hours to agree on guilty verdicts for all charges in what proved a cut-and-dry case. Hunter Biden bought a gun, then lied on the background form by checking “no” when asked if he was a drug user, and possessed the gun while addicted to crack cocaine. The judge said Hunter, the son of President Joe Biden, will be sentenced within the usual 120 days, which would fall prior to the November election. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Washington's wheels are greased with money, but knowing where to point the grease gun is a job for professionals. On this episode of The Drill Down, co-host Eric Eggers welcomes Steve Stewart, a vice president of the Government Accountability Institute, to tell the fascinating – if expensive – story about contaminated water at Camp Lejeune and personal injury lawyers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Deep State is real– a swamp full of disease regardless of who is in office. Like any swamp, it festers because it doesn't move. But when reformers are appointed to run offices or agencies within the swampy backwaters of the Deep State, swamp creatures move like lightning. They go after the reformers. The Drill Down's guest on the most recent episode, Prof. Mark Moyar, has the scars to prove it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Social Media Addiction: Big Tech Lobbying Increases Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Solutions for Improving Election Integrity Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices