On Background with Susan Crabtree

Steve Hilton returns to On Background with Susan Crabtree and Eric Eggers to lay out the case against Javier Becerra and the closing gap in the California governor's race. He walks through Becerra's record at HHS, the missing migrant children, the corruption case reaching into Sacramento, and the practical agenda he says voters respond to on the ground.
00:00 Steve Hilton returns to On Background 00:38 Why the race is closer than anyone admits 01:26 The numbers: closing a 30 point gap 03:53 What Hilton hears from voters on the ground 06:04 Prop 50, ballot harvesting, and building a turnout operation 07:11 The agenda: $3 gas, no tax on your first $150k, abolish the DMV 16:16 Becerra's HHS record and the missing migrant children 24:16 How the machine cleared the field for Becerra 27:31 The corruption case closing in on Sacramento 29:04 Wildfires, affordability, and climate extremism
𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝐁𝐞𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐡𝐨𝐰 👇 On Background is produced by the 𝐆𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐀𝐜𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐈𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐭𝐮𝐭𝐞, a nonpartisan investigative research organization. No anonymous sources. No government funds. We follow the money and publish what it shows. 🌐 https://accountabilityinstitute.org/ 𝕏 https://x.com/Govt_Acct_Inst 📸 https://www.instagram.com/govt_acct_inst ▶️ https://www.youtube.com/@Govt_Acct_Inst 📘 https://www.facebook.com/GovernmentAccountabilityInstitute 📖 More from Peter Schweizer: https://peterschweizer.com 📖 The Invisible Coup: https://theinvisiblecoup.com

Meta agreed to settle with 47 states one day before Mark Zuckerberg was set to take the stand. California Attorney General Rob Bonta calls the deal a milestone. Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier calls the deal a giveaway. Susan Crabtree and Eric Eggers follow the money, run the math, and ask why the number looks so small next to the tobacco settlement of the 1990s.
00:00 Meta's $18 billion settlement, explained 02:00 Why the timing raises questions 04:20 Rob Bonta makes his case 05:47 The changes Meta agreed to 07:05 Follow the money in California 08:40 Jonathan Haidt: the algorithm still runs 11:27 CNBC runs the math on the payout 16:08 Florida's AG invokes the $200 billion tobacco deal 20:21 The games targeting young children 25:14 Bonta's tobacco model, and what he left out
𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝐁𝐞𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐡𝐨𝐰 👇 On Background is produced by the 𝐆𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐀𝐜𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐈𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐭𝐮𝐭𝐞, a nonpartisan investigative research organization. No anonymous sources. No government funds. We follow the money and publish what it shows. 🌐 https://accountabilityinstitute.org/ 𝕏 https://x.com/Govt_Acct_Inst 📸 https://www.instagram.com/govt_acct_inst ▶️ https://www.youtube.com/@Govt_Acct_Inst 📘 https://www.facebook.com/GovernmentAccountabilityInstitute 📖 More from Peter Schweizer: https://peterschweizer.com 📖 The Invisible Coup: https://theinvisiblecoup.com

Susan Crabtree and Eric Eggers break down a week of accountability stories out of California. A state assembly chief of staff tries to humiliate journalist Nick Shirley on camera, days after Democrats advance a bill to fine reporters who question immigration nonprofits. The FBI seizes Eric Swalwell's devices and searches his home. And a new HHS report, Wolves in White Coats, details how federal dollars flowed to hospitals performing gender procedures on minors.
0:00 Intro 0:59 The Nick Shirley confrontation in Sacramento 1:28 Inside the "Stop Nick Shirley Act" and its $4,000 fine 3:29 Watch: the chief of staff's on-camera stunt 10:18 Eric Swalwell: FBI seizes his devices and raids his home 13:31 China's long game in California and the BYD connection 15:46 HHS "Wolves in White Coats" report 17:18 How gender clinics grew from 15 to 225 24:04 Lupron, European bans, and Caitlyn Jenner's warning 28:00 Social media, radicalization, and parental rights
𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝐁𝐞𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐡𝐨𝐰 👇 On Background is produced by the 𝐆𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐀𝐜𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐈𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐭𝐮𝐭𝐞, a nonpartisan investigative research organization. No anonymous sources. No government funds. We follow the money and publish what it shows. 🌐 https://accountabilityinstitute.org/ 𝕏 https://x.com/Govt_Acct_Inst 📸 https://www.instagram.com/govt_acct_inst ▶️ https://www.youtube.com/@Govt_Acct_Inst 📘 https://www.facebook.com/GovernmentAccountabilityInstitute 📖 More from Peter Schweizer: https://peterschweizer.com 📖 The Invisible Coup: https://theinvisiblecoup.com

𝐒𝐮𝐬𝐚𝐧 𝐂𝐫𝐚𝐛𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐄𝐫𝐢𝐜 𝐄𝐠𝐠𝐞𝐫𝐬 break down a primary night gone sideways. Milwaukee lost five of nine jump drives and held up a razor-thin governor's race until the wee hours of the morning. It fits a pattern the city has repeated for two decades. Then the show turns west: Nancy Pelosi's machine against Scott Wiener, an AI chatbot stunt that collapsed into a racism charge, and Medicaid fraud numbers that expose how little California and Minnesota spend to police their own systems. 0:00 Intro and primary season chaos 1:02 Wisconsin's shocker: Crowley over Hong 2:16 The five missing jump drives 6:36 Milwaukee's repeat failures 7:47 Why the DOJ skipped Wisconsin 9:05 Pelosi's machine takes on Scott Wiener 11:44 The AI chatbot that backfired 15:43 Pelosi in her own words 20:23 Becerra vs. Hilton for governor 24:11 Medicaid fraud by the numbers 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝐁𝐞𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐡𝐨𝐰 👇 On Background is produced by the 𝐆𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐀𝐜𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐈𝐧𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐭𝐮𝐭𝐞, a nonpartisan investigative research organization. No anonymous sources. No government funds. We follow the money and publish what it shows. 🌐 https://accountabilityinstitute.org/ 𝕏 https://x.com/Govt_Acct_Inst 📸 https://www.instagram.com/govt_acct_inst ▶️ https://www.youtube.com/@Govt_Acct_Inst 📘 https://www.facebook.com/GovernmentAccountabilityInstitute 📖 More from Peter Schweizer: https://peterschweizer.com 📖 The Invisible Coup: https://theinvisiblecoup.com

Susan Crabtree has spent months reporting on a Secret Service losing control of its own ranks. This week the pattern got harder to ignore. A Miami agent wanted his name out of her story. Then police arrested him for leading a near-fatal hazing. Eric Eggers and Susan walk through five agent arrests this year, the resurfaced Vanity Fair essay reopening Gavin Newsom's 2007 affair, and Javier Becerra's role in losing track of 140,000 migrant children as he eyes the California governor's office. 

DHS says it found 278,000 noncitizens registered to vote across four states, with 190,000 in California alone. New Jersey already admitted 6,600 on its own rolls. California refuses to hand over its voter file and rewrote its voter ID ballot measure overnight. Susan Crabtree and Eric Eggers break down the money, the machine, and the fight over the November vote.

A DEA agent seized fentanyl headed for the streets of Albuquerque. His own government punished him for it. On this episode of On Background, Susan Crabtree sits down with Tristan Leavitt, president of Empower Oversight, the law firm representing DEA Special Agent David Howell. Howell blew the whistle on a policy that let hundreds of thousands of fentanyl pills keep moving through New Mexico so investigators could build bigger cases against the traffickers above them. The parallels to the ATF's Fast and Furious scandal are direct, and the human cost was worse.
Leavitt walks through how a 2019 policy requiring agents to seize fentanyl whenever practical got quietly gutted under the Biden Justice Department, how Howell was sidelined and blocked from testifying after he raised concerns, and how a second DEA whistleblower has since come forward describing a separate case where the same tactic let millions more pills hit the street. New Mexico's fentanyl deaths spiked 21% even as the national rate fell. Leavitt also addresses the role of Chinese precursor chemicals, the Mexican cartels, and Biden-era border policy in fueling the crisis, and explains where the congressional and inspector general investigations stand now.

John Ondrasik of Five for Fighting joins Susan Crabtree and Eric Eggers to talk about performing on the USS Nimitz for America's 250th, bringing a freed hostage on stage to play piano, and why patriotism became a political flashpoint.
He explains how a song written after October 7th connected him to hostage families, why he thinks the arts decide the culture war, and what a California flag ban says about the country right now. Susan and Eric dig into the drop in national pride, the media's role, and whether the divide is as deep as the headlines claim.
On Background is a production of the Government Accountability Institute.

Susan Crabtree and Jed McFatter return to walk through ten figures in Gavin Newsom's political orbit who later faced charges, convictions, or prison. They trace verified election coercion in his first run for San Francisco mayor, the bribery cases reaching into his former staff, and the federal scrutiny now aimed at Jennifer Siebel Newsom's nonprofit and the millions flowing between it and her for-profit film company. The conversation closes on the socialist wave in New York and what it signals for Los Angeles and California.
Read the reporting referenced in this episode in the California Globe and City Journal. Get the full investigation in the book Fool's Gold.

Newsom says Trump invented an investigation to stop his 2028 run.
The truth: prosecutors in Sacramento opened it before Trump took office. A whistleblower came forward last year. His chief of staff already pleaded guilty.
Susan Crabtree and Jed McFatter lay out the rest alongside Eric Eggers.