

Greg Palast
Greg Palast
Greg Palast is an investigative reporter, whose stories appear on BBC Television, The Guardian, Al Jazeera and Rolling Stone. You can read/watch his reports at GregPalast.com. He is the author of the NY Times bestsellers The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, Billionaires & Ballot Bandits, Armed Madhouse, and the highly acclaimed Vultures’ Picnic. You can stream his new film, Vigilante: Georgia’s Vote Suppression Hitman — introduced by Martin Sheen and narrated by Rosario Dawson — for a limited time at: VigilanteMovie.com
Episodes
Mentioned books

Jul 24, 2025 • 21min
Got Purged? Counterpoint’s Scott Harris and Palast Discuss the Antidote to Voter Suppression
In this episode of Counterpoint, host Scott Harris talks to Greg Palast about his latest article, “The Evil Scheme to Purge Half a Million Voters,” which reveals how control of the US Senate could come down to ugly ethnic cleansing of the voter rolls.
Want to push back against the purges? Here’s what you can do:
• Spread this. Like it, and share it.
• Subscribe to my new Substack, @GregPalastInvestigates
• Check if you’ve been purged by CHECKING YOUR REGISTRATION at Vote.org — NOW!
And, if you think our investigations are important, then I’m asking you to donate to support our mighty little band of sleuths.

Jun 18, 2025 • 39min
Are You Sick of 'Winning' Yet?
Palast discusses Trump, tariffs, FEMA and that birthday parade with WVON Midday Show host Cleopatra Draper.
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Jun 5, 2025 • 3min
The Great American Tariff Scam — A Thom Hartmann Program Daily Song
"Steel was strong, but the truth is cold, He sold out the workers for a bar of gold."
This song, which was created by the Thom Hartmann Program, was inspired by Greg Palast's latest article for the Hartmann Report,The Great American Tariff Scam — read it here.
The Great American Tariff Scam Lyrics
[Verse 1]
He stood in a mill with his red tie tight
Told the boys in hard hats, “I’ll stand and fight”
But behind that grin and the photo flash
Was a deal with the devil and a payday stash
Steel was strong, but the truth is cold
He sold out the workers for a bar of gold
Laid off in Gary, gone in Duluth
While the billionaires laughed in their tailored suits
[Chorus]
🎶 It’s the Great American Tariff Scam
A fist full of promises, a smoke screen sham
Jobs fall down while the prices climb
And the ones who get rich are the friends of the crime
He said “I’m here to help,” then he took what he can—
That’s the Great American Tariff Scam 🎶
[Verse 2]
Steel rolls rustin’ by the railroad track
While Wall Street wolves keep slappin’ our backs
They killed the deal that could save the plant
Now the furnaces cool and the wages slant
Imports rise with a tariff tax
Domestic jobs? Ain’t comin’ back
From cars to cables, we all pay more
While they cheer from behind their private doors
[Chorus]
🎶 It’s the Great American Tariff Scam
Wrapped in a flag with a glory cam
He blocks the fix and blames the flame
Says “I’m the hero!”—but he lit the game
He’s the arsonist in a fireman’s van—
That’s the Great American Tariff Scam 🎶
[Bridge]
He said, “I’m here for the working man”
But he hands the loot to the richest hands
From Nippon Steel to the union hall
It’s always the worker that takes the fall
[Verse 3]
Now the ladle’s dry and the silence loud
As the union boys stand heads unbowed
They know the truth from the spin and smoke
From every empty promise that the huckster spoke
[Final Chorus]
🎶 It’s the Great American Tariff Scam
With a hard hat lie and a photo glam
The jobs went south, the truth went cold
But he sold you pride like it’s solid gold
Steel don’t bend, but a worker can—
In the Great American Tariff Scam 🎶
[Outro – spoken over a slow fade]
“Praise me,” he said, “I stopped the fire.”
But he was the one with the gasoline and the lighter.
Subscribe to The Hartmann Report.

Mar 15, 2025 • 26min
Driving It Home: Don't Count On Political Parties To Save Your Vote
Don't count on government or political parties to save your vote.
You need to get active.
Learn more at: GregPalast.com
Support independent journalism, buy Greg a coffee!

Mar 4, 2025 • 32min
Election Crimes Bulletin: How Trump Has Already Fixed 2026
You can ignore Trump slyly hinting to the Lord’s chosen that he just might call off the next election.
But don’t ignore this: Trump won’t be calling off the election because he doesn’t have to. The Fix for 26 is already in.
“Four more years, you know what? It’ll be fixed, it’ll be fine, you won’t have to vote any more, my beautiful Christians.”
The Republican plan is to win next year’s election this year. Yes, the voting will be bent, jacked and hammered this year, 2025, one year before the official voting.
Find out how. Listen to this Election Crimes Bulletin and read my latest report at: GregPalast.com
Support independent journalism, buy Greg a coffee!

Aug 10, 2024 • 22min
Asian Americans are the fastest growing voter group in America — and Trump just dissed them
The Asian American community is the fastest growing voter group in America. Since the last presidential election, 2 million more Asian Americans have become eligible to vote. There are now 15 million potential Asian American voters.
When you look at swing states, like Georgia, there are 328,000 Asian Americans eligible to vote in Georgia. That's the state that Biden won by less than 12,000 votes. And there’s almost 1.1 million Asian Americans in Texas. If they are allowed to vote, Texas turns blue.
It's also a young demographic, and Asian Americans tend to vote three quarters Democratic. So, the GOP's doing everything that they can to crush the Asian American vote. It is racism by statistics.
▶️ Get the full story at GregPalast.com

Jul 13, 2024 • 28min
This Election is Going to be a Vote Suppression Bacchanalia
Let's stop counting Biden's brain cells, and start counting vigilantes. This election is going to be a Vote Suppression Bacchanalia — I’ve never seen anything like it. Mark Elias, who's considered the number one voting rights attorney these days, has said it’s is a virus coming out of Georgia. And it is.
Before the last election we found that under a little-noticed provision of Georgia’s 2021 voting restriction law, SB202, 88 GOP operatives had filed challenges to block a breathtaking 180,000 voters from having their ballots counted. One woman alone had challenged a staggering 32,379 voters in Cobb County.
This new Georgia law circumvented restrictions on states removing voters from the rolls within 90 days of an election, by allowing individuals to challenge an unlimited number of voters. And now this vigilante vote challenge tactic is spreading to other swing states.
The organization that created the challenge lists is a group out of Texas called True the Vote. In Georgia in 2022, when they first launched this vigilante game, they had 88 vigilante vote challengers, now they have an army of 44,000 operating in battleground states across the US.
But understand where this vigilante voter challenge scheme comes from. The Ku Klux Klan created this system in 1946 when they incorporated themselves as Vigilantes Inc. According to the FBI, the Klan challenged every single black voter in many counties in Georgia. And it worked. The Klan got their chief strategist, Eugene Talmadge, elected governor.
Here's the strange thing... In 1946 — before the Voting Rights Act and the Civil Rights Act — Harry Truman's FBI was about to arrest Talmadge for leading this mass attack on Black voters, but days before they were going to arrest him, Talmadge drank himself to death. So, it was illegal in 1946, and now we have the Voting Rights Act, the National Voter Registration Act, and the Civil Rights Act, and somehow mass challenges of voters of color are perfectly fine with our federal courts?!?
The NAACP and Reverend Jesse Jackson, of Rainbow PUSH, have begged Biden to sign an executive order to stop these vigilante vote challenges. They're a clear violation of federal law, even without the Voting Rights Act. They're also a violation of our Constitution. And that's what the FBI under Harry Truman thought — so why isn't the FBI saying the same thing today? It was illegal in 1946, and it ought to be illegal now.
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Jun 18, 2024 • 24min
Election Crimes Bulletin: Trump Plan for 2024 Taken from KKK Plan of 1946
The Election Crimes Bulletin is back for the 2024 Election season.
In this week's episode we reveal how the Trump plan for 2024 — to use an army of vigilantes to challenge Black voters — is the exact same plan the Klan successfully used to elect Georgia governor Eugene Talmadge in 1946.
Learn more at: GregPalast.com

Apr 10, 2024 • 19min
Surreal News: Don’t Buy Exxon’s Fable Of The Drunken Captain
35 years after the Exxon Valdez ran aground, causing America’s greatest environmental disaster, investigative journalist Greg Palast explains why you shouldn't buy big oil's fable of the drunken captain. Get the full story at: https://www.gregpalast.com/dont-buy-exxons-fable-of-the-drunken-captain-2/

Mar 10, 2024 • 2min
Elise Paschen reads Wi’-gi-e, the inspiration for Killers of the Flower Moon
Before Scorsese’s film, before Grann’s book, there was a poem... Osage poet Elise Paschen reads “Wi’-gi-e”, the poem which inspired the title of the book and film, Killers of the Flower Moon.
We filmed her special reading of the poem, which she dedicates to Lily Gladstone, who portrays Osage Native Mollie Burkhart in the film. If there is any justice in this world, Gladstone will win the Oscar for Best Actress.
It was Elise, co-founder of Poetry in Motion, whose poem is spoken in the voice of Mollie Burkhart, who first brought Mollie’s story to wider attention. (In the film, Mollie’s husband, Ernest Burkhart, is portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio.)
After you hear Elise, make sure you catch the trailer for our documentary, Long Knife, produced by George DiCaprio and Greg Palast, which brings the story of the Osage up to date, focusing on the Osage Nation’s fight against the thievery of the Brothers Koch.
This video was filmed by Battiste Fenwick on the Osage Reservation and edited by Esther Shubinski | @manytrailsproduction.
Elise Paschen 's poem “Wi’-gi-e” is published in Bestiary (Red Hen Press, 2009).
#KillersOfTheFlowerMoon #ElisePaschen #LilyGladstone #MartinScorsese #LeonardoDiCaprio #AcademyAwards #AcademyAwards2024 #Oscars #Oscars2024