Latest / Conversations: Special Guests with Preston Scott / Best-Selling Author Peter Schweizer Discusses His Latest Book "Blood Money"

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Best-Selling Author Peter Schweizer Discusses His Latest Book "Blood Money" · Conversations: Special Guests with Preston Scott

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All right, ruminators, settle in, get yourself a little something to nibble
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on and something to sip, and stay with us. Third hour of the
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Morning Show with Rustin Scott at Show five thousand, one hundred and ten.
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It's Grant Allen over there in Studio one A, looking resplendent in the spring
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blazer. I'm here a little little more frumpy in Studio one B, and
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I am joined on the phone line. He still sits atop the Morning Show
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Guest Power rankings. He is New York Times best selling author. Peter Schweitzer.
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Hi, Peter, Hey, great to be with your presses as always,
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Thanks so much. I uh, i've we've we've known each other for
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a while now. There have been there have been a few books, and
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and your books tend to have have this interconnection seemingly, they just seem to
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always have some commonalities in the players and how these sort of ominous events take
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place. Take me back to where the idea came from that there needed to
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be a book devoted to what's going on in China that you've entitled Blood Money.
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Why the Powerful turn a blind eye while China kills Americans? Where'd this
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all begin? Well? It really began in noticing that corruptions become globalized in
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America. I mean, we're all used to, you know, the politician
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who's trying to get a federal paving contract for his nephew or something like that,
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or the politician who's taken one hundred thousand dollars in money from a shoe
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in a shoebox from a lobbyist. That's kind of a corruption we're used to.
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That's bad enough. But what's really happened over the last decade is in
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America has become globalized. You find these politicians both sides of the aisle,
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who find, you know, foreign oligarch's, foreign governments that are willing to
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stuff money in their pockets. Now they do it kind of in a more
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subtle way than a shoe box. You know, they'll set up a family
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member and a quote unquote private equity deal that's funded by you know, a
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foreign government. But I wanted to look at this nexus, and this book
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I think is a little bit different than the others that you know, before
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the problem concern was always the corruption. In this particular case, I really
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wanted to look at the things that China has done over the last five six
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years that has killed literally millions of Americans, and the fact that we're getting
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very little attention paid to it by positions of authority. I mean, in
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other words, this is corruption that actually is a life and death issue and
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has affected the United States dramatically in so many ways. You say, you
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really focused in for the last five or six years. If I were to
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try to maybe kind of look at this as a plant, all right,
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that's the growth above the ground. Where do the roots of this thing begin?
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Does it start with, you know, capitalism trying to find a way
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into China and US embracing that. Yeah, I mean that was the origin,
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right. The idea was great and it was one that I embraced for
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a long time. The idea was, you know, China's developing world country,
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you know, going back in the eighties, and look, if we
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give encourage them towards free markets and capitalism, they're going to become more like
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us. They're going to become more liberal. And for a while people thought
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that's the way things were going to go, and that abruptly ended with the
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rise of President g more than a decade ago. And so what you have
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is in China is you don't have a market economy. You don't have a
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Marxist economy. You have what I call a market Leninist economy, So you
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have certain elements of capitalism, but you have the Leninist you know, communist
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control system. And the allure of China. You know, you look around
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the world if you're a Wall Street investor or you're a Silicon Valley entrepreneur,
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the lure of you know, the world's most populous country growing rapidly, the
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prospects of making enormous sums of money is enormous, and their ability to you
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know, tap into politicians, family members as a lure is powerful and has
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been quite effective. And so that's kind of the origins in the headwaters of
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it which you have going on at the same time, though, Preston is
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really a concerted effort in China what they call disintegration warfare, and that's something
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that was written about in twenty ten. They've embraced it. And really what
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it is Preston is, you know, their view that they are at war
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with the United States, but it's not a war with tanks, it's not
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a war with aircraft carriers, but it is a war with casualties, And
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it's based on the idea of what can we do to disintegrate fragment American society
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in a way that would allow us to beat them without actually getting into a
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kinetic fighting war. And that's what we're seeing unfolding. Whether it's s fentanyl,
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whether it's COVID, whether it's violence in American streets, whether it's a
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lot of the social division that we're facing in the country today. They didn't
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cause it, but they are absolutely fanning the flames in a very, very
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aggressive way, and our leaders don't want to talk about them. Peter Schweitzer
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with us. The book is Blood Money, subtitled why the powerful turn of
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blind Eye While China kills Americans. We're going to get to that with a
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little more detail, Peter, for the benefit of our listeners and for me
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broadly set up who are the main players in this particular story. So the
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main players on the side of China is President G and I think what people
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are going to get is a different look at President G than they previously heard.
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Part of it is understanding who this man is and what his motives are.
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He really revers his father, who is a CCP leader and he built
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a mausoleum. His father's perhaps most famous act was as a young man,
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at the age of fourteen, G's father tried to poison his teacher because the
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teacher was not sufficiently revolutionary, and G thinks that was a bold, courageous
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act. So I think that offers insight into kind of his view and perspective.
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The other thing to understand about G is that his wife is a very
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famous singer in China. In fact, she's so famous I would say even
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infamous because after the Tieneman Square massacre in nineteen eighty nine, she was brought
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in to serenade the troops who had just massacred people in the square. So
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this is a hardened, hardened tough man who has a very different view than
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we do on our side. It's a series of people, you know.
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It includes President Biden, It includes Republican leader Mitch McConnell. It includes people
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like Governor Gavin Newsom who have entanglements with Chinese entities, not even with Chinese
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entities, but in some cases they're brushing up against Chinese organized crime networks that
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are actually involved in things like the fentanyl trade. So it is a mosaic
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that includes characters on both sides of the aisle, and it's I think really
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the story of what America is facing today because when you look at a lot
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of the challenges that we are facing in this country, social division, violence
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in our streets, a lot of this is being the flames are being fanned
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by China. They didn't cause it, but they're absolutely exaggerating it because they
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are seeing the strategic benefits of doing so. Peter. In the news just
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this week, we talked about an arrest in Georgia four nationals, one at
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least here illegally involved in what they believe is a potentially international marijuana grow farm.
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We're also seeing that ninety percent of the illegals coming in across the border
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in San Diego are China. They're coming from China. This is all connected
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to your story, correct, That's exactly right, Preston. I've got a
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section in the book. It's about the drug warfare that China's engaged in.
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You know, they are the senior partner in the fentinel trade. The Mexican
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cartels are the junior partner. But also to your point, this problem with
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illegal marijuana grows in the United States is massive, In the state of Maine
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alone, there are three hundred known large scale marijuana growing operations that are run
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by Chinese nationals, many of which have come into the country illegally. These
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are financed with money from China. And what they're doing present is they're not
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producing the you know, the marijuana you know in the nineteen nineties the kids
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were smoking in college. This stuff is highly, highly potent, much more
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potent than the stuff sold legally. It can be laced with fentanyl, of
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course, and this is part of what China calls explicitly cognitive warfare. They
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want to certainly profit from this, but they also want to sort of dumb
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down, destabilize, and soften American culture. So when people wonder why people
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are, you know, Chinese nationals are crossing the border in Mexico, I
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would argue a big part of it is they have a large need for labor.
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These illegal marijuana grows are in Maine, they're in Oklahoma, They're in
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Washington State, They're in California. They're all over the place. Phone with
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the iHeartRadio app and on hundreds of devices like Alexa, Google Home, Xbox,
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and Sonos, and Iheart's radio season twenty two past. When I say
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he sits atop the guest power rankings, it doesn't offend any other guests that
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I ever have on the show, because anybody who ever sits and listens to
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Peter Schweitzer who's read his books, they just step back and go, Yeah,
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he's right. He's amazing the research, the amount of work that goes
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into one of these books. And the book is blood Money, and Peter,
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you said something previously and I'd read this as well, that you know,
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China thinks it can win the war literally and take this nation without firing
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many bullets. It needs to for infrastructure for all kinds of reasons. But
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is that where TikTok comes in, the ability to aid analyze what Americans are
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digesting, consuming, and are moved by. Oh. Absolutely. I've got
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a whole section in the book on TikTok. And what I would say,
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Preston is, you know, don't take my word for what TikTok is doing.
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Take the words of the Chinese officials and military officers. I quote in
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the book. We got access to documents from the Chinese military, uh,
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you know, military journals, et cetera, from the Chinese ministry ministry of
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propaganda. And they're very explicit. I mean they say explicitly that TikTok is
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a trojan horse, and they dissect and they explain I quote from them extensively
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as to how they are using it to glind down America's youth, creating sort
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of this this you know, dopamine loop where you know they need this constant,
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urgent hit by watching these short videos and that the video content is very
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dumb down, but it's also injected with propaganda, and they lay out explicitly
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how they do it. The purpose is not to be like explicit. You
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know, you're not going to have placards of you know, Chairman Mao,
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you know, marching and marching down in videos. But what you are going
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to get is videos that are designed, in their words, to strip America's
12:15
young people of their understanding of their historical past, to strip them of reverence
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for their national symbols, because by doing so, they are then able to
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deconstruct America's youth and build them up in the image that they want them in.
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And you know, look tech is TikTok is run by Byte Dance,
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the parent company. The senior leadership there is all populated with people that work
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at the Ministry of State Security or used to or at the Ministry of Propaganda,
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senior officials and the Chinese Communist Party and Bye Dance, the parent company
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of TikTok, has a joint venture with the Chinese Ministry of State Security to
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study artificles intelligence and how it can be used to manipulate people online. This
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is the company that people are allowing their children unfettered access to. I mean,
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it's it's just remarkable. And the reason not much is being done in
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Washington, and as I lay out both Republicans and Democrats and I name names,
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is because there is so much money being made by certain American investors that
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they are hiring an army of people in DC, former senators and congressmen,
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former campaign officials for Barack Obama and Donald Trump, and they're doing that money
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around to prevent you know, any serious action being taken. Okay, is
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that genie permanently out of the bottle or are there enough people in Congress,
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enough people running states that can take action and do something about it? A
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great question. There are some people that I think have been very very good
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on tip talk of both Republicans and Democrats, of course, you know,
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people like Marco Rubio, Rick Scott have been very good on TikTok. On
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the Democrat side, Senator Mark Warner of Virginia has been very very vigilant on
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TikTok. And the solution in my mind is, I don't know that you
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can ban it in the sense that something else can just emerge. That's similar.
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But I do feel that, you know, Trump's solution in twenty twenty,
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which was to force the sale to an American company, while not ideal
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because I got problems with American big tech companies too. You're in a whole
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lot better case where you can regulate and try to control a Microsoft than you
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can a company that is owned by basically the Chinese state. So that was
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the right solution, of course. Joe Biden rescinded that one of the reasons
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is that some of his biggest supporters of the Kyl Carlisle Group are major investors
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in TikTok. And at the same time, on the Republican side, a
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gentleman named Jeff Yass He's a big funder for Club for Growth and Republican politicians.
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He is persuading some Republicans to take a hands off approach to TikTok So.
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There are some very very good people, but the battles there, and
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we need to convince our elected officials that this matters to us. This matters
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to us because this is about the future of our country and our future generation.
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Welcome to Mad Radio Network. Make a Difference to Radio Network, and
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this is the Morning Show with Preston Scott. Why do the powerful turn a
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blind eye while China kills Americans? It's called blood money. The author of
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the book is with us for two more segments. Peter Schweizer. Peter,
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you mentioned former President Trump, who many hope will be future president Trump.
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You mentioned the current I won't call him president, I call him Resident of
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the United States. Joe Biden. I have long believed that any tough talk
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coming from the Biden administration relating to China is saber rattling, that when it's
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all said and done, he can't do anything against China because China has all
16:12
the dirt necessary to absolutely overturn Biden and probably the entire administration. I feel
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the same way about Ukraine. Is there anything to that, Yeah, No,
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I think that's absolutely correct. In fact, the Chinese have a phrase
16:29
they use for leaders in the West that they've co opted with money, financial
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ties, and the phrase is big help with a little bad mouth. And
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what it means is what it sounds like, as long as you are delivering
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what really matters to them. But what really matters to China is unfettered access
16:48
to our markets, unfettered access to our capital markets, minimal interference as they
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sort of continue to rise against the United States. If you want to,
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you know, talk tough on Taiwan, if you want to mention human rights,
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they're completely fine with that because they know you have to realistically, to
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be viable, you have to have tough talk. And in the case of
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the Bidens, it's really really clear why he will not talk tough on issues.
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I mean, take the issue of fentanyl. You know, China is
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involved in every stage of the sentinyl production that is poisoning Americans. It's now
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the leading cause of death for Americans under the age of forty five. Here's
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the problem for Joe Biden. If he calls out China, they are then
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going to be able to pull levers. And what is that lever? Well,
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the Chinese gang leader who created the fentanyl crisis in America is a guy
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named White Wolf. He's the head of a gang called UBG. They made
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the Sineloa cartel in Mexico, the Kings of Fentanyl. Everybody acknowledges that in
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Mexico. Here's the problem for the Bidens. In twenty seventeen, White Wolf's
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business partner gave the Biden family a five million dollar interest free forgivable loan that
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the Bidens have never repaid. So you literally have preston one degree of separation
18:14
between the Kings of sentinel Trade and the Biden family. So does Joe Biden
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really want to call out China and say China is poisoning Americans. We need
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to stop this, we need to confront them, we need to do something
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about it. No, he can't. It's deeply embarrassing, and that's just
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one of the entanglements that he has that I think prevents him from taking any
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strong action on this vital issue. What about Donald Trump does is? You
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know, from my chair, it looked like we were starting to gain ground
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in our covert battle with China in his four years. Were we gaining ground?
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Is China really have anything on Trump at all? I don't think they
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have anything on Trump in that sense, I think, you know, Trump
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did do a lot to sort of enter reorient our relationship with China. I
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think the challenge that he faced was sort of self created, and that is
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that Donald Trump, I think, has obviously supreme confidence in his power of
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persuasion, his ability to get people to do things, and so in you
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know, twenty eighteen, he met with President G and to his credit,
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first American president, only American president so far who confronted China on the issue
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of fentadel. President G told him, Okay, we'll stop it. We'll
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we'll ban it, we'll prevent it from being produced. We won't be involved
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anymore. And you know, President Trump took him at his word and sang
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his praises. That's not really the way China works. You've got to be
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tough, You've got to be consistently tough. I do think that Trump has
19:53
learned the lesson from that. I think also during COVID I have a section
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of the book on COVID on how China maximized our body counts. Part of
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the way that they did at Preston was they knew what the virus was,
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they knew where it was going, and they cornered the market on masks and
20:10
medical supplies. When the virus hit us, we lost a lot of medical
20:15
personnel because they didn't have access to any of that equipment. Donald Trump saw
20:19
that and was put in a difficult situation, and he told people in his
20:23
administration, we can't talk too tough to China right now because they will withhold
20:30
more equipment from us. The point being is, I think Trump has learned
20:33
those lessons, but it's about who he puts around him. Who are his
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advisors. That's going to be the real question if he becomes president again,
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always looking for the truth. It's The Morning Show with Preston Scott on news
20:45
radio one hundred point seven w FLA. I don't know if he and his
20:52
team will ever get a Congressional Medal of honor for trying to save this nation,
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but they ought to, especially Peter Schwitz, the author Blood Money.
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Peter, I want to take a second. I want to focus on the
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subtitle why the Powerful turn a blind eye? Well, China kills Americans and
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that is a literal statement you're making there in that book that we've discussed.
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When we talk about the powerful, I mean, we've got the NBA we've
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got the clothing and tennis shoe manufacturers, but as we talked about this week,
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we've got all kinds of other businesses. Boeing, how in the world
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does our government allow a defense contractor to be farming out work in China for
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our jet fighters, O our strategic ammunition. I mean, I don't get
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it. Yeah, well, you don't get it because you're thinking logically,
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you're thinking in terms of what makes practical sense for our country. How dare
21:49
you preston? No? I mean the problem is again money. Boeing wants
21:55
access to the Chinese market, and this is something companies have done for ages,
22:00
and they always, pardon my language, always gets screwed. They always
22:03
get screwed. But they think it's going to be different for them if they,
22:07
you know, do certain deals in China, if they move manufacturing there,
22:11
China's going to open up and give them access. What they always do
22:15
is they end up stealing the practices and technologies and building their own version of
22:19
the same product that the American company was creating. But you know a lot
22:25
of these companies are they're thinking about the next quarter, they're thinking about their
22:27
stock valuations. So they move in this direction and it's an enormous problem.
22:33
And China recognizes this dependent So you know, we were talking about President Trump
22:37
earlier. When Trump imposed tariffs on China's president in twenty seventeen, what did
22:45
China do. Did they go to Washington, d c. And lobby the
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White House? No, they didn't. They went to Silicon Valley and they
22:51
went to Wall Street and said, you are going to go lobby on our
22:55
behalf because if you don't, you're not going to get certain deals in our
23:00
country. And lo and behold, the big investment firms in Washington and the
23:03
big tech firms in Silicon Valley all went to Washington and you pulled arms and
23:10
twisted arms to lobby on behalf of the Chinese government to get rid of tariffs.
23:15
And that's how they operate. And until we refuse to do that,
23:19
that is going to be their approach and it's going to be to our detriment
23:23
in the future of our country. We have to have a pretty sophisticated plan
23:29
if we go that route. I mean, we have to be empowering the
23:32
Pacific grim nations that surround China. We have to secure the rare metals that
23:37
are used in our f thirty five from someone other than China. We can't
23:41
let China have the corner on the market on those rare metals. I mean,
23:45
the list goes on and on, but included in the powerful turning a
23:48
blind eye, Peter. As uncomfortable as this may be, does this include
23:52
us, the consumers, the people that just live in America? It does?
23:57
It does. I would encourage every way to do something I did,
24:00
and I was kind of shocked. I looked at my retirement portfolio. It's
24:06
nothing fancy. You know, you've got some you know, different mutual funds.
24:11
I use fidelity. But go through and look where your mutual funds are
24:15
actually investing, and you will be shocked at how many of the global or
24:18
world funds are invested in Chinese companies. Not just Chinese companies pressed in,
24:23
but companies that are actually part of the Chinese military industrial complex. So there
24:30
are very practical things you can do. And so what I did was I
24:33
sold those investment funds and said no, no, no, I'm going to
24:36
focus on you know, the S and P five hundred index or something else.
24:40
Pick another investment fund. That's the first thing. The second thing is
24:42
the consumer choices. You make. You can find Chinese products that are always
24:47
going to be cheaper than American products, but chances are that Chinese product is
24:52
made by a company that is part of a conglomerate that is wedded to the
24:56
CCP and is also part of the Chinese military industry complex. So you're aiding
25:00
in a betting. I would argue you're our chief adversary when you are making
25:06
a consumer choice. I understand it the cost if things are more expensive,
25:10
but just realize the implications of what you're doing when you make that choice.
25:14
Peter, I could spend a day talking with you, and you know that
25:18
all too well. Thank you for your time this morning, and we'll talk
25:22
again soon. Always a pleasure. Thank you. Preston the the movie,
25:26
maybe it'll be a movie. The book is Blood Money, Why the Powerful
25:32
turn a blind eye while China kills Americans. The author is Peter Schweitzer.
25:36
It's HarperCollins book. You can find it literally everywhere. I joked with him,
25:40
I said, you get entrees to democrats because your book's available at Target.
25:47
Go buy it at Target. But it's literally available everywhere. He's a
25:51
bestseller, and now you know why he's on top of the power rankings for
25:56
guests of the Morning Show with Preston Scott