Show Notes
Thanksgiving is time for reflection, the giving of awards, and of course, awkward moments. Herewith, on the latest episode of The Drill Down, Peter Schweizer and Eric Eggers generously give out their Turkey Awards, and even save some room for pie.
First, the awkward moment: In all the years they’ve known each other, Eric has never invited Peter over to his house for Thanksgiving … Moving right along.
True to the Drill Down spirit of calling out cronyism, corruption and abuse of public authority, the hosts get right into the kitchen to present…
The Hidden Neck and Gizzard Award
Has anyone not at least once forgotten to take the gross bag containing the turkey neck and the turkey gizzards out of the bird before popping it in the oven? Well, this award goes to the public figure who gave us the biggest nasty surprise of the year… Dr. Anthony Fauci. Fauci exudes confidence on television. At the start of the pandemic, there he was urging us to live normal lives, go on a cruise, and not worry so much. Weeks later, he’s advocating for economic lockdowns, mask requirements and closing everything down to stop the spread. The truth is, he’s lied to us many times. He lied to Congress multiple times when asked by Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) whether US taxpayers funded the “gain of function” research conducted at the Wuhan Institute of Virology that may have created the COVID virus that we’ve been dealing with for more than two years now. Fauci lied about the effectiveness of masks. He lied about vaccines and said frequently that he wouldn’t mandate vaccinations, but now he’s doing that. The neck and the gizzard are still inside Fauci. And for Americans, as Peter says, the threshold is “don’t lie to us.”
The Nighttime Turkey Sandwich After Dessert Award
The meal is over. You ate dessert. You should be full and go to bed now. Instead, you sneak into the kitchen late at night and make yourself that completely unnecessary, borderline-gluttonous turkey sandwich. You know who you are. You are this year’s winner, Donald Trump.
On his very last day in office Trump signed executive Order 1370 that removed the restriction he himself had ordered at the beginning of his term that barred lobbying by administration officials. Like that extra slather of mayo, this is just unhealthy. Barring administration honchos from accepting lobbying jobs after they leave the administration was a great idea, because without it too any people spend their last months in office trying to do favors for firms that might hire them for big money after they leave. It’s a classic Washington game and “commodifies your office.” It may be the only thing, maybe, that Trump has in common with Bill Clinton, who did the same thing in 2001 when he left office.
Thanksgiving Morning Turkey Frying Party Award
Eric has an uncle who, every year, disappears for hours on Thanksgiving Day to meet up with his buddies to fry turkeys. No one knows if they do or not, no one knows what might have gone on while they were at it, but they come home a bit “worse for wear” and tell no tales about what they might have really been up to.
So, this award must really go to The Biden Family, a family that was corrupt long before Joe Biden became president and remains corrupt today. We know they are corrupt. They know we know they are corrupt. But they still seem to get away with it. Peter has already written about the corruption during Joe Biden’s Senate career, and about the “Biden Five” that includes his brothers, his daughter, and of course, his son, Hunter. During the campaign, Biden assured Americans there will be no business deals by his family members while he is in office, yet Hunter is still involved in those deals involving China.
Oh, and don’t forget Hunter’s new “art” career. The Bidens pretend they solved the ethical concerns around a broker selling Hunter’s art works for hundreds of thousands of dollars by announcing that the buyers will “be anonymous,” Hunter’s broker, by the way, is known to be looking for new clients in China. Hunter’s indulgent mother, Jill Biden, even displayed her son’s artwork in the White House, and we don’t mean on the refrigerator.
Eric suggests that instead of paying illegal immigrants $430,000, as the administration is reported to be planning, why not just give them one of Hunter’s priceless art works?
The Turkey Loaf Award
Later in the Thanksgiving leftovers game, something appears in most refrigerators called “turkey loaf.” What is it? Why is it? And, why is it still around? Everyone wonders but no one wants to ask about the undistinguishable mass.
This award goes to the infrastructure bill, that $1 trillion mashup of mystery meat. As we’ve discussed on previous podcasts, we’ve seen this thing before. In 2009 when President Barack Obama did this, 80 percent of the money wound up with companies owned at least in part by donors who were on Barack Obama’s campaign finance committee. But the Biden administration wants us to believe that won’t happen this time, so the man they have put in charge of making the decisions about how the mystery loaf will be sliced up will be … Mitch Landrieu, the former Lt. Gov of Louisiana and, before that, the former mayor of the most corrupt city in America, New Orleans. Handing Mitch the carving knife is a sure sign that the priority here is not fixing America’s roads and bridges but kicking back money to Joe Biden’s campaign donors and other connected cronies.
The Oyster Stuffing Award
This one is controversial. Think of that gourmet stuffing recipe that not everyone appreciates, like the time Eric’s grandma threw oysters into the stuffing. It is perhaps an acquired taste.
Our disputed awardee is Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Eric believes Blinken has been surprisingly tough on China, protecting American interests and calling them out for their human rights abuses against the Uyghurs at a contentious summit meeting earlier this year.
Peter isn’t buying it. “I’m a show-me kind of person. And Blinken is all just words,” he says. “If you’re going to make oyster stuffing go ahead and do it, don’t just tell me how good your recipe is.”
Blinken, Peter says, has his own commercial ties in China (to be discussed in a future podcast). The Chinese recognize that those people who are helpful to them will also need to criticize them sometimes publicly. There’s a saying in Chinese that translates to “ ‘Big help with a little badmouth.’ It’s been part of the Maoist strategy since the 1950s. It means they tolerate criticism from people as long as those people are doing what they need.”
The hosts close out with some positive awards.
The Pumpkin Pie Awards go to those people who are doing the right things to expose fraud and corruption in government. Peter and Eric offer a nice slice of pumpkin pie with a dollop of Cool-Whip on top to …
- Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), who has introduced a bill to end the Justice Department slush fund from directed settlements, which funnels money to various well-connected left-wing nonprofit groups.
- Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Sherrod Brown D-OH) for proposing a ban on holding individual stocks of any kind by members of Congress, administration senior officials, and Federal Reserve governors. This addresses a widespread problem with insider trading. Warren’s and Brown’s approach is good in that elected officials would not be in a position to trade based on information they get in office.
- Rand Paul (R-KY) the libertarian-leaning iconoclast, who has been relentless in exposing the “gain of function” research that our government funded. He won against Anthony Fauci over this and deserves a shoutout for challenging Fauci until he got him to finally admit that the CDC funded this research, at least a big part of it. Rand Paul has shown courage in the public arena, and he was right.
- And finally, Bob Casey (D-PA) and John Cornyn (R-TX) who want to create a reverse version of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). CFIUS reviews foreign companies that want to buy American technology that may have national security concerns. Casey and Cornyn’s bill would apply the same yardstick to US companies that want to invest in foreign businesses work for that nation’s military benefit. It’s a “genius idea” that Peter thinks will pass.
That’s a full meal. And Peter finally pushes back from the mic and says, “I’m stuffed.”
We hope you all have a Happy Thanksgiving and go easy on the turkey loaf.
