InfluenceWatch Podcast

Amid protests over immigration enforcement by leftists in Minneapolis, a group of Black Lives Matter demonstrators allegedly invaded a service at a church whose pastor they claimed was an Immigration and Customs Enforcement official. (Ex-CNN talking head Don Lemon was also there, claiming to be an independent journalist.) The U.S. Department of Justice has issued statements that they are investigating the incident, with the possibility of pressing charges under the FACE Act, a piece of legislation enacted in 1994 to deter protests at abortion clinics that contains a provision extending its provisions to religious worship sites, or the Ku Klux Klan Act, Reconstruction-era legislation that made interfering with Americans’ civil rights a federal crime. Already, the federal government has announced that multiple activists involved in the demonstration have been arrested. Is that reasonable? We are joined by Manhattan Institute legal policy fellow Tal Fortgang to discuss.How the White House Can Crack Down on Radical Groups—LegallyAnti-ICE protesters storm church in Minnesota during serviceMinnesota agitators arrested in wake of church invasion, Bondi saysDispute over Arresting Don Lemon?Don Lemon Just Happens to Make It to Church on TimeThe Rise of Civil TerrorismBlocking the Road Is Civil Terrorism

Just before Christmas, the federal Justice Department secured indictments against four alleged radical-left domestic terrorists alleged to be affiliated with the “Turtle Island Liberation Front.” Our colleague Robert Stilson is deeply familiar with the notion of “turtle island,” a name for the North American continent derived from a Native American myth that radical leftists increasingly use to show they deny the legitimacy of the American and Canadian governments. He joins us today to discuss the radical left’s increasing rejection of America’s existence and how the mainstream center-left appeases the radicals with “land acknowledgments.”https://www.justice.gov/usao-cdca/pr/grand-jury-charges-four-members-anti-government-group-terrorism-felonies-stemming-newhttps://capitalresearch.org/article/turtle-island-and-the-legitimacy-of-america/https://capitalresearch.org/article/the-ideological-fuel-of-a-new-left-part-1/https://capitalresearch.org/article/the-marguerite-casey-foundation-part-3/statics.teams.cdn.office.net/evergreen-assets/safelinks/2/atp-safelinks.html

In the early morning hours of January 3rd, U.S. military, in an impressively covert operation, captured Venezuela’s self-declared president Nicolas Maduro, and his wife and spirited them away to face narco-terrorism charges in a New York courtroom. In the immediate aftermath, Venezuelans cheered in the streets, celebrating the demise of Maduro’s Marxist regime, one that had decimated their economy and led to huge numbers of Venezuelans fleeing the country since 2013. Leftist groups in the U.S., such as the ANSWER Coalition, The People’s Forum, Code Pink, and the Chicago Teachers Union, also organized quickly,  gathering crowds for protests in prominent American cities, leaving observers wondering just how they were able to mobilize so fast. Here to discuss what happened on Jan 3, what the future looks like now for Venezuela and her relationship with the U.S., and to answer questions about the organizations behind the protests, is our friend Mike Gonzalez, a senior fellow for national security and foreign policy at the Heritage Foundation.Mike GonzalezHow the Smithsonian lost its way Trump’s reforms are essentialTrump Announces U.S. Military's Capture of MaduroANSWER CoalitionCode Pink (CODEPINK)The Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL)The People’s Forum

Minnesota was liberal to begin with: It has the distinction of “voting blue, no matter who” since Jimmy Carter led the Democratic ticket, joining only the District of Columbia in refusing to give its electoral votes to President Ronald Reagan in 1984. For a while, the Hubert Humphrey model of Big Government, strong labor unions, and a business community that operated with a “social conscience” worked well. But in recent years, the social model of Scandinavian exiles has broken down, just its big brother did in Scandinavia itself. Joining us to discuss how Minnesota’s social model has collapsed as “some of the state’s leading politicians and sectarian interests” have come to “understand government not as a society’s shared instrument to address its problems, but as a storehouse to pillage” is Armin Rosen, a journalist who wrote on the state’s problems for Walter Kirn’s newspaper-magazine County Highway.The Shame of Our Cities

The year 2025 has been wild and disruptive in the world of policy and influence, with a new administration coming to power with an aggressive agenda, a major reorganization of the left and Democratic Party’s most important dark-money network, and a worrying rise in political violence. Joining me to look back on the year are my colleague Robert Stilson and Capital Research Center president Scott Walter.Six homes, Caribbean vacations and a new SUV: How Oklahoma pastor spent $3.15M of ‘embezzled’ BLM OKC moneyThe DOGE Files: Top ten ways to waste tax dollarsHow Left-Wing Nonprofits Exploit American Taxpayers to Fund Their AgendasAmerican Center for International Labor Solidarity (Solidarity Center)Greenpeace, nonprofits, and illegal protests

A new presidential administration does not typically mean new management at the Federal Bureau of Investigation, but typically the incumbent FBI director did not oversee the FBI when it raided the President-elect’s house. Given that fact and other standing disputes with the Bureau, it is not surprising that President-elect Donald Trump and Senator Chuck Grassley have informed FBI Director Christopher Wray that he does not have the confidence of both the incoming administration and the incoming Senate majority. President-elect Trump has announced his intention to nominate Kash Patel, a former Congressional staffer and national security staffer in the first Trump administration, to replace Wray. Here to discuss how the FBI got here and where it might go in the next administration is our colleague, Ken Braun.Links: Pursuing the FBI’s “Wicked” Russiagate PerpsThe FBI’s Bad Apples: The Bureau’s Worst Days Are Worth RememberingMatt Taibbi: Kash Patel was totally vindicatedFederal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)Follow us on our socials: Twitter: @capitalresearchInstagram: @capitalresearchcenterFacebook: www.facebook.com/capitalresearchcenterYouTube: @capitalresearchcenter

The Groups, the justly maligned nonprofit and otherwise-professional activist groups whom moderate Democrats blamed for the failures of the Biden administration on the economy and immigration, are back and bolder than ever. Joining us today is our colleague Robert Stilson to discuss his profile on one of the most well-funded and radical The Groups you’ve probably never heard of: PolicyLink.The ascent of PolicyLinkInfluenceWatch profile for PolicyLink

Minnesota was liberal to begin with: It has the distinction of “voting blue, no matter who” since Jimmy Carter led the Democratic ticket, joining only the District of Columbia in refusing to give its electoral votes to President Ronald Reagan in 1984. For a while, the Hubert Humphrey model of Big Government, strong labor unions, and a business community that operated with a “social conscience” worked well. But in recent years, the social model of Scandinavian exiles has broken down, just its big brother did in Scandinavia itself. Joining us to discuss how Minnesota’s social model has collapsed as “some of the state’s leading politicians and sectarian interests” have come to “understand government not as a society’s shared instrument to address its problems, but as a storehouse to pillage” is Armin Rosen, a journalist who wrote on the state’s problems for Walter Kirn’s newspaper-magazine County Highway.The Shame of Our Cities

Arabella Advisors, we hardly knew ye. The once obscure, multi-billion dollar, private-equity-owned machine of leftist funding has gone the way of the dinosaurs. Or has it?Arabella, an organization we here at CRC worked diligently to help bring into the light, has in fact, after being rather publicly and unceremoniously dumped by the Gates Foundation in June, simply split, been restructured, been sold, and/or rebranded, depending on your perspective. The two new entities born of Arabella’s demise are Sunflower Services, a public benefit corporation, and Vital Impact, a philanthropic consulting firm that most resembles the former dark money machine.  The three c3 workhorse nonprofits housed under the former Arabella, who often served as fiscal sponsors for other nonprofits and from which the funding flowed – New Venture Fund, Hopewell Fund, and Windward Fund – are now investors in the aforementioned Sunflower Services and have vowed to continue the work of helping leftist nonprofits accomplish their goals on everything from DEI, to abortion, to social justice. But there are many questions remaining, with perhaps the most interesting: what happens to Arabella’s most political entities, the c4s, notably the notorious Sixteen Thirty Fund? And what prompted them to make this momentous change?Arabella Advisors Dissolves After Years of GOP-Led InvestigationsBill Gates to Stop Grantmaking via Arabella AdvisorsArabella: The Dark Money Network of Leftist Billionaires Transforming AmericaWhat, Exactly, Just Happened to the Left’s Dark Money Behemoth Arabella Advisors?Bill Gates may have just set off the death of far-left-tainted philanthropy

What makes a journalistic outfit “completely independent”? According to Drop Site News, the outlet is exactly that, and “reader-supported” to boot. But recent Open Society Foundations spending reports suggest that the outlet is not completely reader-supported: George Soros’s philanthropy spent $250,000 to support the creation of a “MENA desk” for the group through a fiscal sponsorship cut-out. Joining us to discuss the Open Society-Drop Site relationship is Chuck Ross, senior investigative reporter at the Washington Free Beacon. EXCLUSIVE: Soros Bankrolling Anti-Israel Drop Site NewsSame Game, Different Name: 'Radioactive' Arabella Advisors Announces Rebrand to 'Sunflower Services' as Prominent Donors Flee