#peter schweizer

John Knefel at MMFA:

Over the last several weeks, the outlines of a plot have begun to emerge that could signal how President Donald Trump, along with MAGA media figures and activists, could attempt to severely curtail voting rights under the pretext of declaring a national emergency posed by China. The details of the scheme remain publicly vague, and may not yet come to pass, but the short version looks something like this: First, the White House would declassify and release documents purporting to show foreign interference in U.S. elections, especially by the Chinese Communist Party.

Next, Trump would use that supposed “proof” of a stolen election to declare a national emergency, thereby — according to those pushing this idea — giving him extraordinary powers over the upcoming midterms. That move would serve as a way to advance the anti-voting rights measures in the SAVE America Act, like forcing voters to prove their citizenship, without having to actually pass the law — which Congress, so far at least, appears reluctant to do. The main players here come not only from the fever swamp backwaters of MAGA media, but also from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the White House. Former Trump adviser Steve Bannon is a central node, attempting to advance the operation on his War Room podcast, aired on right-wing network Real America’s Voice, long a major source of misinformation about the 2020 election. Bannon’s RAV colleague John Solomon, whose role in the plot appears to be running the declassification effort, was recently appointed to a White House “task force” into supposed election integrity. Solomon was Media Matters’ Misinformer of the Year in 2019 for his role in laundering misinformation about the Bidens and Ukraine through his opinion columns.

Also in the mix is Peter Schweizer, who founded the Government Accountability Institute with Bannon and has moved from spreading misinformation about the Clintons to claiming that China is taking over the United States by exploiting birthright citizenship. Then there’s Cleta Mitchell, a right-wing lawyer who was on the January 2021 call when Trump urged Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” enough ballots to tip the state his way. She referenced Schweizer in a June 20 appearance on War Room, positively paraphrasing an argument he made on his podcast acknowledging that much of the voting activity he wants to suppress is actually legal.

“Peter Schweizer put it pretty well last week in a podcast that he does with Eric Eggers, and the question they posed is: If fraud is made — if election fraud is made legal, is it still fraud?” Mitchell asked. “Because what's happened in California over the last decade is that the far-left Democrat, socialist, Marxists, communists have completely upended every vestige of election integrity.” (Bannon had teed her up by referencing the Los Angeles mayoral primary, claiming without evidence: “They stole it right in front of our face and laughed at us the entire time.")

Mitchell is supported by a loose array of election deniers who have called on Trump to issue an executive order to seize “king-like powers” over voting systems, supported by the national emergency decree. Bill Pulte, the newly installed acting DNI, and his recently appointed chief of staff, former Republican National Committee official Christina Norton, also appear to figure heavily into the plan. On June 20, Bannon said Pulte’s role at DNI is “to get to the bottom of the 2020 stolen election.” Ten days later, Bannon described Norton as “one of the top election fraud people in all of the RNC” and said Pulte is “signaling where he's going on this” with her hiring, adding that “my understanding is that there is going to be real revelations about the stealing of the 2020 election."

[...]

The Supreme Court’s narrow June 30 decision to protect birthright citizenship could turbocharge the Bannon-Solomon-Pulte scheme, in part by providing fodder for anti-Chinese sentiment on the right. On Solomon’s website, Just The News, an article about the birthright citizenship case referenced Schweizer’s book and hyped the supposed China menace.

Senate Finance Committee Probes Biden-Linked, Chinese Military-Boosting Tech Sale

The Senate Finance Committee is probing the Obama administration’s 2015 decision to approve the sale of a U.S. company with insight into “military applications” to the Chinese government and an investment firm run by former Vice President Joe Biden’s youngest son, Hunter Biden.

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), the committee’s chairman, senta letter to the Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin on Thursday…

This is a very informative segment covering Hunter Biden’s business dealings in Ukraine and China.   Touches on his finances, dates of trips and subsequent business deals, much more.  

Breitbart EXPOSED: Propaganda Mill For Tea Party Billionaires (AUDIO)

It’s been amply established that Breitbart News Network is one of the most notorious fake news shops in the country. The site bills itself as the main mouthpiece of the alt-right, and the voice of those who want to drain the swamp. Well, it turns out that Breitbart’s premise is just as fake as the “news” it peddles. An investigation by Media Matters revealsthat Breitbart regularly promotes the…

Jack Winstanley and Torri Lonergan at MMFA:

Amid the ongoing protests against President Donald Trump’s anti-immigrant crackdown in Minnesota, right-wing media figures have revived their oft-repeated claim that there are “paid protesters and agitators” who are being compensated for their actions by some outside force. Following the fatal January 24 shooting of Alex Pretti, an ICU nurse, by Border Patrol agents in Minneapolis, some right-wing media figures have claimed that Pretti himself was paid to be there. In their search for a bogeyman, right-wing media have even suggested that foreign governments are somehow behind the protests. 

Amid ongoing anti-ICE protests in Minnesota and fallout from federal agents killing Alex Pretti, right-wing media figures are reviving their claims of paid agitators

On January 24, Border Patrol agents in Minneapolis fatally shot Alex Pretti, an intensive care nurse at a VA hospital. This shooting followed the January 7 killing of Renee Good by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in Minneapolis. Both Pretti and Good were reportedly U.S. citizens with no criminal record who were shot while observing federal immigration operations in Minnesota. White House officials defended the Pretti shooting by labeling him a “domestic terrorist” and a “would-be assassin” who “tried to murder federal agents,” but multiple independent analyses of footage from the scene suggest these claims are false. ABC News reported that “videos appear to contradict, at least in part, claims by federal officials that Pretti ‘approached U.S. Border Patrol officers with a 9mm semi-automatic handgun’ and ‘attacked’ officers carrying out immigration duties.” [The Associated Press, 1/24/26; Media Matters, 1/28/26; ABC News, 1/26/26; Forbes, 1/26/26]

Right-wing media outlets largely justified the shooting or blamed Pretti for his own death, with some figures breaking ranks to criticize DHS agents’ conduct. In the days following the shooting, figures on Fox News blamed Pretti and said the shooting was justified, while right-wing podcasters argued that Pretti “fought law enforcement” and declared that “the ICE action was 100% justified and totally vindicated.” However, some criticized what they saw as “bad tactics” from the agents and said the shooting was “a mistake.” Going further, Newsmax senior judicial analyst Andrew Napolitano labeled the shooting “murder,” adding, “There's no justification for that under the law whatsoever.” [Media Matters, 1/25/26, 1/28/26, 1/26/26, 1/26/26, 1/25/26]

The Trump administration has repeatedly claimed that protesters are paid by outside groups in an effort to legitimize crackdowns. Amid the June 2025 anti-ICE protests in Los Angeles, Trump baselessly claimed that protesters were “agitators,” “paid,” and “professionals,” and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard seemingly cited an irrelevant Craigslist ad from pranksters to claim there are “ads put up on Craigslist offering people thousands of dollars a week to go out and conduct these violent and dangerous riots.” Similarly, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy alleged that No Kings protesters were paid, claiming that “it begs the question who's funding it,” and Trump called anti-ICE protesters in Portland “paid terrorists.” Several GOP figures labeled the 2025 No Kings protests as being filled with “paid protesters,” with similar claims being levied against other anti-Trump and anti-ICE protests. [The New York Times, 6/13/25; Media Matters, 10/15/25, 9/29/25]

Right-wing media have long alleged that protests they oppose are led by paid activists. In 2020, right-wing media accused George Soros of funding Black Lives Matters protests, and Rush Limbaugh claimed protesters were paid “actors” pretending to be mothers and veterans. After an ICE agent fatally shot Renee Good in Minneapolis, Fox News contributor Paul Mauro said being an agitator is “a career path for a lot of people in today’s left,” claiming, “They are drawing salaries that are, at least in part, funded by American taxpayers. They get all kinds of grants, always from the Democratic Party or left-leaning groups that have ties to the Democratic Party.” Right-wing podcaster Benny Johnson labeled Good a “paid agitator.” [Media Matters, 10/7/20, 7/28/20, 1/9/26; Fox News, 1/9/26]

Right-wing media figures and influencers have latched onto chats on the encrypted messaging app Signal as evidence of an organized “Minnesota insurrectionists” group. FBI Director Kash Patel has launched an investigation into the chats, telling MAGA podcaster Benny Johnson that the Bureau is looking into whether they show activities that “illegally entraps and puts law enforcement in harm’s way.” MS NOW reporter Brandy Zadrozny noted that “this kind of community group chat has become common in Chicago, Los Angeles and Minneapolis, where neighbors and activists are using the apps to organize and monitor ICE operations amid President Donald Trump’s federal crackdowns.” [MS NOW, 1/28/26; The Guardian, 1/27/26]

January polling has shown that Trump's handling of immigration and federal immigration officers’ conduct is unpopular with American voters. In a poll conducted after an ICE agent killed Good in Minnesota, a New York Times/Siena poll found that 61% of registered voters found ICE's tactics had “gone too far” and that 58% disapproved of how Trump is handling immigration. Pew Research Center's survey of U.S. adults conducted January 20-26 found that 72% say it is unacceptable for federal immigration officers to check immigration status based on appearance or the language they speak, and 61% say it is unacceptable for officers to wear face coverings that hide their identities. [The New York Times, 1/23/26; ABC News, 1/26/26; Pew Research Center, 1/29/26]