That's Eric Eggers, and we are going to be filling in for Sean today.
We have a podcast that we do together called The Drill Down.
We've written multiple books, eight New York Times bestsellers for it, number one.
We do investigative work, and we are so blessed to come and fill in for Sean from time to time.
2026, we're here, and you are happy about the new year, right?
Peter Schweitzer, not only are we blessed to continue to do the very good work that we do both on our podcast, The Drill Down, which you can find at thedrilldown.com and at the Government Accountability Institute, the nonprofit organization that you steer as president.
But we're blessed to just be here, right?
It's January 2nd, 2026, and we have survived the year 2025, a year in which Donald Trump became president, and we were told repeatedly the end of Western society was nigh.
Yeah, yeah.
We remember, of course, election night of 2024 and the meltdowns and the shock of a lot of people.
But throughout 2025, when Donald Trump enacted his policies, we got a recipe, a massive recipe of doom and gloom.
So tariffs, of course, were a big part of his initiative on the economy.
And tariffs were going to tank the economy and effectively destroy the Western world.
Here's what Warren Buffett, the famous investor, said earlier this year, earlier in the spring of 2025.
How do you think tariffs will affect the economy?
I mean, tariffs are actually, we've had a lot of experience with them.
They're an act of war.
Yeah, so tariffs are an act of war.
I didn't know that, but apparently they are.
And that's just one example of many things that were said about Trump's tariffs policy.
Look, far be it from me to criticize Warren Buffett.
He's incredibly successful and I think gets most things right, except for maybe his prediction on tariffs and understanding the social impact that his little chuckle has at the end of his little fits.
It's odd.
But yeah, that would be an example of one of the famous people who said a thing that didn't prove to be true about the impact of Donald Trump and his policies and what they would have on the United States.
You follow the stock market quite closely.
It seems like we're still doing okay.
Yeah, we're doing fine.
And what's interesting about this, and there's a common pattern with all of these things where you have these dire predictions, is nobody's saying, well, I would prefer if the policy were slightly different.
It's all doom and gloom with Donald Trump.
So on tariff policy, we heard that in spades.
You know, this was going to be what happened in the stock market crash in 2029 when Herbert Hoover came in and there was the tariffs that came into place.
It was going to be a replay of that.
Trump's use of the National Guard.
Again, the debate was not, well, we're not sure that this is the best way to deal with crime and disorder in our cities.
And to pause and acknowledge, hey, there are, in fact, some cities where crime is a problem.
Exactly.
Exactly.
They're like, no, what are you talking about?
What crime?
And then they bring in the troops.
And then we're told by Gavin Newsom that, in fact, the troops are going to create more crime, not solve it.
Yeah, that's right.
And J.B. Pritzker, of course, the governor of Illinois said this was going to get civilians killed.
Like these guardsmen were going to run around and shoot people.
And then, of course, in its most extreme form, you had progressives saying that this was going to be, in effect, a fascist takeover.
This was Trump's effort to sort of conceal and control power in the United States through the use of the National Guard.
Interesting to note, of course, that they just announced that the National Guard is actually leaving some cities.
So those are a couple of examples.
Another one, of course, Iran, the bombing of Iran.
Again, you can have a dispute on what is the best way to deal with Iran.
I certainly think you have to be firm and tough.
But people like Tucker Carlson were predicting that the bombing of Iran would lead to a catastrophic full-scale World War III.
It would involve thousands of American deaths, the collapse of the U.S. economy because gas was going to be $30 a gallon, and it was going to be the end of Donald Trump's presidency.
Oops.
Well, we're only off by a decimal because it does start with a three, but it, but it ends there.
That's the units digit.
No, the hyperbole is insane.
And so, just to recap so far, if you're keeping track, we were going to be in a World War III because we were going to bomb Iran.
Right.
The economy was going to be in the tank because of the tariff policies.
And, oh, by the way, like, we were going to have like fascists take over militarized streets because we had deployed National Guards troops to major cities.
And quietly, many people may not know this because it didn't get a ton of media attention because it doesn't fit the dominant narrative, the dominant narrative that Donald Trump is a fascist.
But they did it out to say, hey, look, okay, we lost the Supreme Court decision.
So Chicago, Portland, Los Angeles, we're going to take the troops out of there.
Notice in Washington, D.C., in which he was permitted to do so, the troops were quite successful in helping reduce crime.
Yeah, that's right.
Because Washington, D.C., of course, has a special status under federal authority.
And Tucker wasn't the only one that predicted World War III.
There are plenty of Democrats.
But the point is, do you see a pattern forming here?
It has been sort of outrageous media on everything that Trump has done, and none of it has panned out.
Let's go on to immigration, right?
Trump said, I'm going to build a wall.
I'm going to seal the border and we're going to deport people that are in the country illegally.
A lot of predictions that was going to tank the economy and lead to massive problems.
Here's what Mark Cuban, the billionaire, who's been wrong about probably more things than any other billionaire I know, here's what he said was going to happen with Donald Trump's deportation policy.
Donald Trump has got Stephen Miller, who said he wants mass deportations.
I sat in front of restaurant owners and I asked them, what would it be like if all of a sudden you got to knock on your door and there was somebody from Stephen Miller's squad asking you for the names and addresses and immigration status of everybody that works for you?
That's not how you can run a country.
Yeah, well, we have been running the country that way for the past year, and it's been great.
The economy is doing well.
The labor market is good.
Again, more dire predictions that didn't happen.
You know, you're absolutely right about Mark Cuban.
He's wrong so much.
He was giving that interview, in fact, in support for Kamala Harris and suggesting that she would be better for the country.
Mark Cuban's wrong so much.
I think he did support the Luka Dotsch trade, in fact.
I think that's, I'm now, I'm bringing him into that loop.
No, and so just to put the meat on the bone on this particular issue, we've had 2 million people, Peter Schweitzer, self-deport this year.
They upped the incentive.
They tried off for $3,000 instead of $1,000 at the end of 2025.
They've had 600,000 deportations.
So a little over 2.5 million fewer people in this country who weren't supposed to be here.
But the fact that he had 2 million self-deportations, I think, is a stat.
No one really talks about it.
It should be a credit to the Trump administration.
And by the way, Barack Obama used to be called the deporter-in-chief.
He was sending on average about 400,000 people out through just deportations, not the self-deportation.
Deported over 3 million people during his eight years as presidency.
So all Donald Trump has done is continue a policy maybe at a higher level than something Obama did.
Yeah, there's clearly a pattern here, right?
And that's the hyperbole, the threats.
Donald Trump is the devil.
Donald Trump is going to cause all these problems.
Turns out they're not true.
So you're right.
Immigration policy is working.
He's doing what he said he was going to do.
You've had 2 million self-door deportations, 600,000 deportations by federal authorities.
You look at what bombing Iran did didn't lead to World War III.
It led to a situation where we actually now have a peace, relatively speaking, the Middle East, and a chance for real change.
There's massive protests that have broken out in Iran because the economy is in the toilet.
It's in a terrible state.
And you have people, tens of thousands of people chanting death to the dictator on the streets of Iran.
So those predictions were totally wrong.
We got crime down in cities because of what we did with the National Guard.
So look at the tariffs.
We got $200 billion in tariff revenue.
So the deficit is actually coming down.
A remarkable record in contrast to what we were told was going to be a disastrous, chaotic, terrible 2025.
So then here's the question, because we are seeing, there are some challenges and some real problems.
We heard audio from the beginning of the intro here, which they do a great job putting that together.
But New York City has a new mayor.
They have a Democrat socialist.
And so a lot of people are suggesting that that will not be great for the future of the greatest city in the world.
We're going to talk to Carol Markowitz about that actually at the bottom this hour and just kind of get some insights and boots on the ground.
How bad is New York City?
How bad will it be?
But if the larger theme of this segment that we've done is a lot of times these dire predictions are wrong, but not when we make them about Momdani, right?
He's going to be terrible.
Well, it's going to be interesting to see, right?
What he does.
And we're going to look at later in the broadcast at his relationship with Bernie Sanders because Bernie Sanders was mayor of Burlington, Vermont.
Bernie Sanders is his mentor and his icon, according to Mamdani.
And when Bernie Sanders became mayor of Burlington, Vermont, that's when he started to get rich.
So it's going to be interesting to see what Momdani does.
I think that the lesson that we all have to learn is looking at how we consume information, what we believe, what we listen to.
If people are wrong consistently, if they're wrong in a massive way, maybe we ought not listen to them as much anymore.
I mean, if they're making predictions, we're going to have World War III, the economy is going to shut down, that food's going to be rotting in the fields because there's nobody to pick it.
And that turns out not to be true, not even remotely true.
Perhaps those people don't deserve the attention of our ears.
Well, remember, we were told among the predictions, not just about immigration and the tariffs and bombing Iran, all that stuff.
We were told by people like Mark Cuban and by Kamala Harris in 2024 that no less than democracy was on the ballot, Peter Schweitzer.
And of course, the irony was that Donald Trump is the one person who we had to choose from for president actually won his party's political primary, which cast, you know, votes were cast.
But here we are in 2026.
Maybe we should just take a moment and toast the fact that democracy still seems to be at least somewhat alive.
They're still holding elections.
It's hanging on.
It's hanging on by a thread.
The troops have gone.
The ballot boxes are open.
Like, we made it.
We're okay.
Yeah.
Well, I think you're right.
And I'm going to predict that Donald Trump is actually going to leave the White House under his own power.
He's not going to try to hold it like so many people predicted.
And it's going to be a great 2026.
We want to hear what your thoughts are about the year ahead, not just politically, but personally.
What are the things that you are looking forward to?
Are there commitments you're making personally, resolutions for the new year?
Call us at 1-800-941-7326, 1-800-941-7326.
You made any New Year's resolutions, at least ones you want to share with millions of people?
Absolutely.
I mean, I come on National Radio to be vulnerable about my own personal life and the inherent problems that are in it.
Actually, later I will read something because to your point, I think one thing that we need to continue to be just mindful of is the information we consume and who's creating that information.
The story in the 5 o'clock hour you're not going to want to miss about AI generated content being directed at kids on YouTube and how much money people are making off of it.
People who are not credentialed to be, you know, we're not talking about like Mr. Beast.
We're talking about people from these foreign countries that create AI content and it directed at kids.
They're making money.
And they're just, as a parent, you have to be incredibly mindful.
But we've got a lot of very important stories to talk about today.
We love getting to fill in for Sean.
We've got Carol Markowitz, as we said, to talk about the Mamdani era in New York City.
At 4 o'clock, we're going to talk about former Congressman Jason Chaffetz about what to expect in Washington, D.C. Congress allegedly dysfunctional.
People are leaving, but there's still work to be done, right?
Yeah, there's work still to be done, and there's some encouraging things, but also there's a lot of chaos.
So it's going to be interesting to get his insights.
We're also going to have the former governor of Minnesota, Tim Palenti, to come on and talk about the massive widespread fraud that is occurring in Minnesota.
And I think even the bigger story, which is the effort by the political establishment, Governor Walls and others, to cover it up.
Absolutely.
You know, you've seen the video.
You've seen Nick Shirley.
There's a lot of really weird stories about this Minnesota.
But I think the biggest thing that people aren't talking about that I hope we can talk to former Governor Tim Palenti about is the fact that he's the last Republican to win statewide election in Minnesota.
And just, you know, consider this, that for the last 20 years, only one party's been in charge in the state of Minnesota.
And for the last 15 of those years, the person who's been in charge of that party, the person who's been in charge of the Democrat Party in Minnesota, is now in charge of the Democrat Party in the country.
Ken Martin is the head of DNC.
So is the model that was created in which you have these refugees, these migrants, and we're funneling all this welfare money to them, and then that money finds its way back into the coffers of these politicians in one way or another.
Is that a model they're attempting to replicate throughout the country?
And I think it's a very important story that suggests what, at least on some level, the left wants to do to the country.
And what you're saying is it worked in Minnesota.
It absolutely did.
So it could potentially work nationally because you do see the pattern of this massive fraud.
I mean, fraud happens everywhere, but you see it kind of on a massive scale in places like California and Illinois because the political leadership does not want to investigate it.
We're going to be back after this break and we're going to talk about Donald Trump's New Year's resolution.
We'll be right back.
Hey, it's Eric Eggers and Peter Schweitzer.
We're filling in for Sean Henvey here on January 2nd.
Happy New Year to you.
Thank you for spending your Friday afternoon with us.
Peter, it is the day after the new year, and a lot of people like to make New Year's resolutions.
Donald Trump on New Year's Eve was asked what his was.
Peace on earth.
That's peace on earth.
That's the most chaotic possible sound you've ever heard for someone saying he wishes for peace on earth.
Peter Schweitzer, what do you think about the fact that he's trying to get peace on earth?
Well, I think Trump doesn't get enough credit for what he does in terms of foreign policy.
And, you know, he is somebody who's America first, but he's not America only.
He's worried about things that are going on in the world.
And look, when he was saying, I want peace in the world, that's my New Year's resolution, Vladimir Putin had a different speech that he gave.
In his speech, he talked about his defiance of the West, the fact that he was going to guarantee the integrity, security, and sovereignty of the fatherland.
And he talked about Ukraine and continuing the escalation of the warfare there.
You're talking about a million people that have died in that battle already.
Trump is trying to fix that.
China, you had China's president, Xi, who also had a New Year's address.
It was not peace on earth, was not what he was focused on.
He was vowing to reunify China and Taiwan in his annual speech.
And then, of course, you have all the military operations that are taking place around Taiwan.
The other thing that's going on is in Iran.
You have this uprising that is occurring that the media has ignored.
They've shut down 21 provincial governments.
Protests have broken up around Iran, and they're calling for death to Khomeini.
So hopefully he's going to succeed, but huge challenges.
Massive challenge.
He's not the only one facing challenges.
New York City's facing challenges.
They've got a Democrat socialist in charge of that city.
We're going to talk to Carol Markowitz, New York Post columnist, about what the future holds under a Mamdani administration.
That's next.
He's Peter Schweitzer.
I'm Eric Eggers.
We're in for Sean Handy.
Be right back.
Hey, it's Peter Schweitzer and Eric Eggers.
We are filling in for Sean.
Happy New Year to you.
Join the conversation 1-800-941-7326.
Also, consider subscribing to our podcast, The Drill Down.
So, New York City has a new mayor.
Things off to kind of a rocky start.
The New York Post reporting that the inauguration block party, it was called the inauguration for a new era block party by Mamdani staff, was a dismal failure.
It was a bust.
Apparently, people showed up by the thousands.
They were told to get there by 11 for the event to start at 1.
It started half an hour late.
No bathrooms and no food.
People not particularly happy about that, but the problems are likely to get larger than just this terrible rollout of the block party.
Not a good look if the first event you hold as a Democrat socialist is no access to public facilities and no food.
Get used to it.
Right?
From the people who brought you no food at the rally comes, we're going to now in charge of the buses, guys.
Exactly.
Well, we've got a great guest that's going to be joining us, Carol Markowitz.
She's a columnist for the New York Post, one of my favorite writers.
And she is, I think, a New York refugee.
She lived in New York, now has moved down to Florida.
Happy New Year, Carol.
Thanks so much for joining us.
Hi, Peter and Eric.
Thank you so much for having me.
So your take on Mamdani, is it going to be as bad as people are predicting, or do you think that he's going to kind of moderate a little bit?
What are your thoughts?
It's interesting because I am somewhere in between, not because I think he's going to moderate at all, but because I think he's going to be unable to do some of the things that he says he wants to do.
So free buses, for example, would sound like a great idea in theory, but in practice would be basically homeless shelters on wheels and, you know, drug addict locations on wheels.
And so the idea of doing that was something that he ran on, but in actuality, to do that, you need the governor of New York to raise taxes in order to accomplish that.
And Governor Kathy Hochl has no interest in doing that in her own election year.
So I think he's going to be stymied by the realities on the ground.
That still means he will be able to do a lot of damage.
Bill de Blasio, the last socialist mayor, he did a lot of damage to the city.
Today is actually my four-year anniversary of living in Florida, being a Floridian.
I feel like a genius every single day, but we got out because of Bill de Blasio's policies, and they were terrible and really just he did a lot of damage to the city.
He undid so much good that had preceded him, and New York hasn't recovered from that.
It's absolutely true.
It's, you know, on some level, there's a spirit of New Yorkers, which I think embodies the spirit of America.
And we like the grit, we like the fight, we like the energy.
But when you kind of combine a cultural wokeness with this socialist that kind of seems to work against these capital initiatives and spirit, it seems like a bad recipe.
It also seems, you know, for as much as Donald Trump gets accused of being a racist and like signaling to like the worst elements of society, Mamdani has done some dog whistly things that seem to be anti-Semitic, correct?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Oh, absolutely.
I mean, just, you know, his first orders of business were things that, you know, Jews considered protections that were in place.
And anti-Semitic attacks on Jews are at an all-time high in New York City specifically.
Brooklyn is the capital of actual attacks, actual physical attacks on Jews in the country.
And so I think that there's been so much dog whistling.
keeps having these little moments where he can make himself clearer or not hire people who have extremely questionable things in their past, but he hasn't done that.
And I think that Jews of New York are bracing for the worst with him.
And I think they should be.
I think they're in a situation where they're incapable of protecting themselves.
New York has very strict anti-gun laws, so they cannot defend themselves.
And they have a mayor now who has no interest in defending them or no interest in standing up to the people who would harm them.
So it is a really tough time for the Jews of New York City.
I would say to a lot of them, get out if you can, really.
And I have family in New York.
I root for New York.
I want things to turn around, but I don't see things getting better for a while.
Yeah, Carol, it's interesting when you talk about him getting rid of some of the protections for the Jewish community.
This is the same guy who's talked about quote-unquote microaggressions, like verbal things that are said.
You're actually talking about physical attacks in this particular case.
So, you know, here's the question.
I mean, the fear that I always have when a social democrat assumes a position of power is they know how to effectively use the machinery of government to stay in power.
So as a New Yorker, as somebody who has family there, you write for the New York Post, does this represent a sea change in New York?
In other words, is there going to be a chance to go back?
Or do you think he's going to spend so much time and energy building up the political infrastructure for himself and the same kind to stay in power?
Yeah, it's definitely possible.
I think that New York is a special place.
I really do.
I think it has a lot of things that other cities just don't have.
It's sort of the city that accomplishes most in the country.
And the fact is that it's on the decline.
It has been for a while now.
So is he going to be able to use the mechanisms of power to keep his own people in power?
I'm sure he will be.
I think that they're in a bad place, and it's going to take a lot to recover.
One thing that I like to say is, you know, Bill de Blasio didn't undo it overnight.
He actually, for his first term, was able to ride on the accomplishments of Mike Bloomberg and Rudy Giuliani.
And it took a while to undo 15 years of good policing, for example.
It wasn't an overnight thing.
So I think Mamdani is heading in that very same direction.
I don't know how much worse it could get in New York in terms of like people not being held accountable for various crimes or the fact that every single Dwayne Reed or grocery store has to lock up their products.
I mean, all of that makes it a really challenging place to live.
So I hope that he's able to or not able to succeed in doing the kind of things that he wants to do.
But he really did get elected with the majority of New Yorkers saying, we want this.
So we'll see.
So let me ask you about that, because do you think the majority of New Yorkers said, we want this?
Or do you think the majority of New Yorkers said, we don't want that?
Like you just said, how much worse can it get if it's a super expensive and crime-ridden city?
You don't fault New Yorkers for saying, please, anything.
And he campaigned on this pledge to, we're going to make the falafels cheaper because we're going to get rid of regulations and we're going to, you know, like, and the buses and the daycare is going to be free.
So if you, is there anything he can do?
Because obviously he's not going to be able to raise taxes.
Hokle's not going to work with him.
What can he do from what your understanding is?
And what's the thing that's most concerning about what is on the table?
So many things are concerning, but you're absolutely right.
New Yorkers said, first of all, they said no to Andrew Cuomo, which when Andrew Cuomo was the great hope of New York, I knew things were not going to go well.
You know, when that was the guy that was going to save the place, that was really a path that they didn't want to be on.
But yeah, you're right.
New Yorkers wanted lower prices and they wanted different policies and they're going to get that.
I'm most concerned, I guess.
I think the crime part of it is things he's going to be able to do.
If he really does close Rikers Island, that will put a lot of criminals on the streets because there's simply nowhere else for them to go.
The plan was to close Rikers and to build additional prisons to transfer the prisoners.
But if he just closes it without those additional prisons, which he has kind of signaled he's going to do, they're going to have to release some number of criminals onto the streets.
And stuff like that is really scary to me because I don't know how New York can sustain that.
They already have so many issues with homeless people being violent or there was a rash of people being pushed onto subway platform onto the subway tracks.
It's a really tough situation on the crime side, and that's something that he's going to be able to affect.
Yeah, no, I think it's going to be very interesting to watch.
It has implications not just for New Yorkers, but for the rest of the country, because we know how this goes, Carol, right?
It was the same thing with AOC.
When she won in 2018, Social Democrats around the country tried to adopt that model.
And you also have this interesting merging in New York of Muslims who are serious about their faith working with left-wing progressives who believe in things like gay marriage that Islamists don't necessarily believe in.
So that kind of so-called red-green alliance seems to be the model that they're going to try to imitate elsewhere, at least where they have that kind of a population density that can make a difference.
Yeah, it's an interesting alliance, but we are seeing it across the country.
I think that they're willing to work together.
That fact really shows that they have a common goal, maybe.
And I think a lot of it does have to do with Israel or with Jews in general.
They've made this alliance, and that's where they're headed to really make it more difficult to support Israel.
For example, one of the things that he got rid of that Eric Adams had done was supporting Israel.
So I don't know whether that alliance can be sustained long term.
They're definitely making a run of it for now in a lot of places across the country.
Are Muslims necessarily left-wing?
I don't know, but they are doing this alliance, and I don't know, they're winning.
So yeah, maybe they're willing to look overlook some of the other liberal cultural policies when you have stuff like, I mean, one of Eric Adams's executive orders was going to bar city officials from boycotting or divesting from Israel.
Mamdani revokes that on the first day.
He also revokes Eric Adams' adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's definition of anti-Semitism.
So, you know, things that are important to the Jewish community, and he gets rid of it right away.
And it doesn't seem like that's not impacting the daily life of New Yorkers.
So it seems there's got to be some other larger principle point he's trying to make.
We'll definitely be watching Carol Markowitz.
You've done a great job of documenting this.
Great job with New York Post.
We'll continue to watch this story.
Thanks for joining us today.
Thanks so much, guys.
So she's Carol Markowitz.
He's Peter Schweitzer.
And Peter, you have stuff.
And we're going to talk about this just on the other side of this break.
It matters what Mamdani does, and it matters who his influences are.
And while he's got some Islamic influences, he's got some political influences also.
Yeah, Bernie Sanders, his mentor, Bernie Sanders, was a mayor.
And very interesting.
I think we're going to see history repeated itself in a very unusual way.
We'll be right back after this.
Apple says Sean Hannity is bad for America.
Sean Hannity.
Welcome back, everybody.
Eric Eggers is Peter Schweitzer filling in for Sean Hannity.
We do a podcast called The Drill Down, which you can find at thedrilldown.com.
Peter, we just heard from Carol Markowitz.
The Mamdani era has begun in New York City, and he had a few people to thank as he gave his remarks yesterday, one of whom I think caught your eye.
Thank you to the two Titans who, as an assembly member, I've had the privilege of being represented by in Congress, Nidia Velasquez and our incredible opening speaker, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
You have paved the way for this moment.
Thank you to the man whose leadership I seek most to emulate, who I am so grateful to be sworn in by today, Senator Bernie Sanders.
Now, this is fascinating to me because, of course, Bernie Sanders apparently is the icon and the idol of Mamdani.
Bernie Sanders was mayor of Burlington, Vermont for eight years, and he seeks to emulate him.
Here's my prediction.
I think one of the ways that Momdani is going to imitate him is by self-enriching the way that Bernie Sanders did.
So Bernie Sanders, when he became mayor of Burlington, was completely broke.
Eight years later, he leaves as mayor.
He owns three homes.
He's worth a lot more money than he was before.
And he did it by putting his first girlfriend and then later wife on the city payroll without any approval.
He put her in charge of the mayor's youth office, whatever that is.
He started giving paid speeches on socialism around the country.
And he said at one point, it's so strange just having money is what Bernie Sanders said.
And what he also did, though, is he struck political bargains with people in Burlington that were powerful that he previously opposed.
There was the Pomerlow family.
There were big developers.
He ran against them.
But once he became mayor, he partnered with them.
And of course, the Palmerlo family not only started donating to his campaigns, they started funding his wife's private projects.
So I think you're going to get the same kind of action from Mamdani.
You're going to see this self-enrichment.
He's going to engage in crony capitalism with favored people that are willing to fund his causes and fund perhaps his family members.
That's what I think he means by emulation, not just the socialism, but the self-enrichment.
The socialism, I don't know that we know enough to say whether or not he's a true believer in that, although he's been connected to this Bernie Sanders alliance for some time.
But it does seem like once you get into office, look, being the mayor of New York City has got to be good for your bottom line.
And if you can sprinkle in enough of like the virtue signaling left stuff to keep the business running, then that's how you kind of stay in office, right?
Yeah, it's a combination of the two.
So Bernie Sanders would attack the powerful people in Burlington, but then he would also set up side deals with them involving his wife and other people.
And I can absolutely see Mamdani doing the same things, fund my causes, do enough to keep the progressives happy, do enough to keep some of the rich people happy that are willing to play ball with you.
Well, and to the point of like following the Bernie Sanders playbook of striking up deals or getting along with rich, influential people, note that what did Mamdani do?
Went to the White House and played nice with Donald Trump.
He did indeed.
So we'll continue to see how much of the Bernie Sanders playbook Mamdani follows.
By the way, everything Peter Schweitzer just said is in his book, Profiles in Corruption, one of his numerous number one New York Times bestsellers, which you can encourage you to pick up.
It's too late for it to be a Christmas present, but it's still good information.
When we come back, we're going to talk to Jason Chaffetz.
He's been somebody that's affiliated with our organization here, former member of Congress and former chair of the House Oversight Committee.
We're going to talk about some of the things we're hearing about Congress.
Is it really dysfunctional in the House GOP caucus?
And what can we expect to actually happen?
Will there be indictments?
Will there be subpoenas?
Will people go to jail for some of the things we've been documenting, all the corruption that's been happening?