InfluenceWatch Podcast

George Soros, the famous liberal billionaire investor-philanthropist, is over 90 years old, which would motivate anyone in his position to think about his succession. This week, the Wall Street Journal profiled the heir apparent: Soros’s son Alexander, who claims to be even “more political” than his father. Joining me to discuss Alex Soros and the future of the Soros family advocacy-philanthropic empire are my colleagues Sarah Lee and Parker Thayer.Links:Influence Watch - Alexander SorosInfluence Watch - Open Society Foundations (Open Society Institute)George Soros Hands Control to His 37-Year-Old Son: ‘I’m More Political’Meet Alex Soros, the 37-year-old successor son to the $25 billion George Soros empireFollow us on our Social Channels:Follow us on our Socials:Twitter: @capitalresearchInstagram: @capitalresearchcenterFacebook: www.facebook.com/capitalresearchcenterYouTube: @capitalresearchcenter

The private automobile defined post-World War II America, liberating the masses from the regimentation of railroad schedules and the limitations of foot transportation. But the left has never liked the motorcar, or at least the social changes it brought. It liberated middle-class Americans from core-city governments by expanding the suburbs, helped turn renters into homeowners, and lessened public dependence on unionized government workers in city mass-transit systems. And so it has always been a target of the radical wing of the left, which seeks every weapon to hand to limit the twentieth-century freedoms the car offers. Today, my colleague Ken Braun and I welcome Diana Furchtgott-Roth, the director of the Center for Energy, Climate, and Environment at the Heritage Foundation, to discuss the Biden administration’s war on cars.Links:Emissions-free Electric Vehicles Are a FantasyBiden EPA’s EV Quotas Would Take Away Americans’ Freedom of Choice of Vehicles, Enrich ChinaTargeting Toyota for Its Electric-Vehicle HeresySearch Email New York Post LOG IN Search Type to Search SEARCH NEWS Facebook Twitter Flipboard WhatsApp Email Copy 49 Comments Think tank scholar calls out Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse’s membership at alleged all-white beach clubFollow us on our Social Channels:Follow us on our Socials:Twitter: @capitalresearchInstagram: @capitalresearchcenterFacebook: www.facebook.com/capitalresearchcenterYouTube: @capitalresearchcenter

A new union-curious faction of conservatism is growing in the run-up to the 2024 election. Leading the charge is a group of otherwise solidly conservative legislators (you’ll recognize the names) and policy wonks who have the ear of venerable conservative think tanks (you’ll recognize these names, too) who insist that if conservative candidates are going to win, they must reimagine 75 years of union distrust and take seriously the idea that the right has become the party of the working man. And the working man, they reason, might just need unions. CRC’s labor policy expert Mike Watson disagrees and he, along with our colleague Ken Braun, joins the podcast today hosted by Sarah Lee to discuss statism from the right.Links: A Mandate for Labor Error: Statism from the RightNo Need to Rethink the Conservative Stance toward Labor UnionsNEWS RELEASES Project 2025 Publishes Comprehensive Policy Guide, ‘Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise’Follow us on our Social Channels:Follow us on our Socials:Twitter: @capitalresearchInstagram: @capitalresearchcenterFacebook: www.facebook.com/capitalresearchcenterYouTube: @capitalresearchcenter

If I could provide just one piece of free advice in public advocacy, it’s this: Don’t openly say you messed up on an on-record call with a reporter—you might as well be bleeding in a tank full of piranhas. But the principal officer of Fix the Court, a liberal organization spun out of the Arabella Advisors “dark money” empire advancing “transparency” changes to the Supreme Court as part of a liberal full-court press towards “packing” the court with additional left-wing rubber-stamp votes, did just that on a call with today’s guest, Gabe Kaminsky of the Washington Examiner. Also joining us is my colleague Parker Thayer, who reported on some financial non-transparency at Fix the Court.Links:Fix the Court May Have Financial Disclosure ProblemsSupreme Court 'transparency' charity director panics over IRS donor leak: 'I just f***ed up'Supreme Court 'transparency' group hammered by Judiciary GOP over IRS donor blunderDisinformation Inc: Meet the groups hauling in cash to secretly blacklist conservative newsFollow us on our Social Channels:Follow us on our Socials:Twitter: @capitalresearchInstagram: @capitalresearchcenterFacebook: www.facebook.com/capitalresearchcenterYouTube: @capitalresearchcenter

This week, Justice Department Special Counsel John Durham issued the final report on his investigation into Crossfire Hurricane, better known as the “Russia collusion investigation” targeting the 2016 presidential campaign of Donald Trump. Joining us to discuss the broader “Russiagate” scandal and the Durham Report is Ken Braun, who wrote InfluenceWatch’s extensive profile on the unsubstantiated allegations of “collusion” between the Trump campaign and Russian government entities and the checkered history of the FBI.Links: Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)Trump-Russia Collusion ClaimsJim BakerFollow us on our Social Channels:Follow us on our Socials:Twitter: @capitalresearchInstagram: @capitalresearchcenterFacebook: www.facebook.com/capitalresearchcenterYouTube: @capitalresearchcenter

Title 42, an emergency policy allowing U.S. authorities to send border-crossers back whence they came (usually Mexico) on public-health grounds, is ending with the COVID-19 public health emergency. And with the Biden administration extremely lackadaisical, to put it mildly, in its approach to general immigration law enforcement, what does the end of Title 42 portend at the US-Mexico border? Joining us today to discuss the end of Title 42 and her work investigating the role of nonprofit organizations in carrying out the Biden administration’s near-as-makes-no-difference open-border policy is Lora Ries, director of the Border Security and Immigration Center for the Heritage Foundation.Links:Alone and Exploited, Migrant Children Work Brutal Jobs Across the U.S.Congress Must End the Exploitation of Unaccompanied Alien ChildrenBiden Shovels Millions to Nonprofits to Aid His Open-Border Schemes. Congress Must Cut Off Cash SpigotCongress Should Stop Funding the Biden Administration’s Open-BordersFollow us on our Social Channels: Follow us on our Socials:Twitter: @capitalresearchInstagram: @capitalresearchcenterFacebook: www.facebook.com/capitalresearchcenterYouTube: @capitalresearchcenter

I’m Sarah Lee, and this is the Influence Watch podcast. With news last month that Visa and Mastercard had paused a plan to track gun purchases, and last year’s SCOTUS decision that struck down a New York law that put restrictions on concealed firearms used for self-defense, conservatives seem to be winning on the gun issue. In fact, more women and minorities – and even progressives – are buying guns for self-defense. The Wall Street Journal reported in 2021 that during the COVID pandemic, gun sales soared, and more than half of those buyers were women. Joining my colleague Mike Watson and me today is Dianna Muller, the founder of DC Project, a women-focused guns rights nonprofit in DC with chapters all over the country dedicated to fighting for the constitutional right to self-defense. Hi Dianna, welcome to the show. Links: DC Project Women for Gun RightsDC Project Women for Gun Rights - Dianna Muller - FounderVisa, Mastercard pause decision to track gun shop purchasesWomen Are Nearly Half of New Gun Buyers, Study FindsSupreme Court strikes down New York gun law, expanding concealed carry rightsThe Policies of Gun Control AdvocacyFollow us on our Socials:Twitter: @capitalresearchInstagram: @capitalresearchcenterFacebook: www.facebook.com/capitalresearchcenterYouTube: @capitalresearchcenter

I’m Sarah Lee, and this is the Influence Watch podcast. Yesterday, three years after the COVID pandemic lockdowns began, American Federation of Teachers union president Randi Weingarten, who many feel was the public face of extended school lockdowns, testified in front of the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic. Weingarten, who had spent most of her time during the pandemic loudly decrying attempts to reopen schools – calling plans from the last administration to reopen in late 2020 “callous” and “cruel” -- struck a decidedly different tone before Congress, insisting her goal was always getting kids back to in-person instruction, an assertion that was rather hilariously fact-checked by Twitter’s community notes Thursday. Here to discuss the hearing are my colleagues Mike Watson and Parker Thayer. Weingarten TweetFree Beacon TweetBeware Teachers Unions Bearing School Reopening TalkRandi Weingarten says 'Biden transition team’ was first to solicit union’s advice on schools reopening

If the “ESG”—environmental, social, and governance—movement had a guiding text, it would the Proxy Preview. Put out by the corporate social responsibility investing nonprofit As You Sow, the Proxy Preview details all the ESG “shareholder resolutions” that activist shareholders, government worker and labor union pension funds, and left-of-center nonprofits want American businesses to adopt. Joining us to discuss the Proxy Preview and the organizations behind it is our colleague, Capital Research Center research specialist Robert Stilson.Sources: The Proxy Preview: ESG in 2023Influence Watch ESG Activism HubAs You SowFollow us on our Socials: Twitter: @capitalresearchInstagram: @capitalresearchcenterFacebook: www.facebook.com/capitalresearchcenterYouTube: @capitalresearchcenter

The Athenai Institute is a college student-led organization that seeks to limit the influence of the Chinese Communist Party on U.S. college campuses. Since their inception in 2020, they have worked to help young people understand not only the often-underreported billion dollar financial relationship between the U.S. academic sector and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), but how the CCP exports their surveillance state techniques -- through apps like the infamous TikTok -- that serve to both downplay the regime's human rights abuses for American students, but to keep Chinese students studying in the U.S. in line and loyal to the CCP. Joining Sarah Lee on the podcast today to discuss these subjects and Congress' new moves on China is John Metz, co-founder, current board member, and former president of the Athenai Institute. Links: https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/athenai-institute/ https://athenai.org/ https://thepienews.com/news/chinese-student-pro-democracy/ http://waysandmeans.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/3.15.23-UPenn-Letter8.pdf Follow us on our Socials: Twitter: @capitalresearch Instagram: @capitalresearchcenter Facebook: www.facebook.com/capitalresearchcenter YouTube: @capitalresearchcenter