The Threat of Foreign Influence in U.S. Elections

0:00 Speaker 1 Sunday morning, Labor Day weekend. What’s going on? Well, Congresswoman Tenney is with us, and she had an important briefing last week with some of our intelligence agencies, and they’re concerned. Well, Claudia Tenney, give us a briefing. What the hell? What are they scared of?

0:22 Speaker 2 Hey, John, great to be on, and just want to say happy Labor Day to everyone out there, and thank you to everyone who works hard, and especially those people who are going to have to work on Labor Day.

0:31 Glad that we can honor the people that are the machines that drive the engine of our economy and our country. So, look, I serve on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. I also serve on the House Ways and Means Committee, and the Ways and Means Committee has been pivotal in exposing some of these foreign actors, some of these, you know,

0:52 Fundraising mechanisms like the Democrats Act Blue, those types of things are really, it’s all open source, but we are concerned about dark money coming from foreign entities taking advantage of our not-for-profit status. That’s through the IRS. They get to be a 501c3. They don’t have to report anything except through a 990 at the end of the year.

1:14 And where is that money coming from and how do we track it? And who are the people that are behind that? And these people have concocted very elaborate schemes in order to drive money into politics, to influence elections, to get involved in voter turnout, to get involved in many of these activities that are illegal under our system.

1:36 And many of these entities are not even complying with our not-for-profit laws. And unfortunately, under the Biden administration, we were asleep at the switch. They did not. There was no oversight. A lot of these... companies are able to thrive.

1:49 You saw some of the things that Nick Shirley exposed with not-for-profits in Minnesota. He’s going into New York now. You know, you and I as New Yorkers know that this is a huge problem in New York, a lot of fraud, abuse, and waste. But a lot of this money is coming from these really dark networks, networks run

2:07 by this guy named Singham, who is, you know, behind a lot of this dark money. The networks are linked to In many cases, they’re linked to China, Chinese organized crime figures, Russian organized crime figures, Iranian, Cuban. And these people are working, in many cases, behind the scenes through organizations like Code Pink, who you think are a bunch

2:32 of older ladies screaming at everybody about free Palestine. But these people are heavily connected with groups like in Iran and groups in Cuba and And a lot of those all that that dark money comes through and it gets used to influence Americans. It’s a really scary thing, John.

2:49 And we’ve got to crack down on this. And I want to give credit to Jason Smith, the chair of the Ways and Means Committee, and the work he’s done on making sure that we are exploring and issuing subpoenas through our oversight committee on ways we’ve done that. Many of these people have not answered the subpoenas. They’ve denied it.

3:08 And we’re continuing to issue them. They’re on various groups, the People’s Forum. They’re involved in these soft insurgency-type issues to try to, like, really gear people up and get them against the American people. They’re showing up at protests with really nice, not homemade-looking signs, by the way.

3:28 Speaker 1 All of this has.

3:29 Speaker 2 Been orchestrated by enemies taking advantage of our system. And we have to wake up as Americans.

3:35 Speaker 1 I agree with you. But you’ve got to understand that– and people, the American people have to understand we’re at war and it’s the foreign companies and that are being taxed tariff-wise to guess what? To make things even-steven and they’ve been taking advantage of us. That’s why we have a $ 40 trillion deficit is because we’re funding Europe and

4:04 protecting them and they weren’t paying their fair share. And these foreign companies were getting a favorable status. And it’s like, I’ll give you an example. We were buying German cars and very little tax on them. And when we want to sell a Chevrolet in Germany, the tax is double almost.

4:27 And all that President Trump wants is because he is a businessman, is even Steven, and that’s his problem with Canada, too. He wants even Steven. And you’re right next to Canada. Tell us.

4:40 Speaker 2 Yeah, no, exactly, John. I mean, he just wants fairness in trade. And you know that I have the border of Canada with me. I love my Canadian neighbors, and I’ve spent my lifetime going back and forth to Canada, whether it’s curling or showing my horse. Yes, I’m a curler.

4:56 I know I’ve said this on the show before. But the problem is Canada has really benefited from the United States. They’re a Five Eyes partner, which we call in the intelligence community. We’ve shared intelligence with them. They’re also a very small country with a very small amount of trade.

5:14 Important to us, though, important resources. But they’ve been getting a free ride, and we offered them the deal of the century through our great U.S. trade representative, Jameson Greer. And they walked away. Why did they walk away, John? Politics.

5:29 It looks good to counter President Trump for Prime Minister Carney right now. And even though our mutual friend Doug Ford is trying to take in some shots out there, it looks good to counter Donald Trump. But the problem is Canada really needs to stop being a free rider on our system and our defense and all that we’ve

5:47 done to support and help Canada, you know, through our long term and also very good relationships. It’s time for Canada to stand up. It’s time for them to stop dumping powdered milks in my district, where I have the fifth largest dairy district in the entire Northeast. It’s time for them to really come to the table. They have

6:05 a great deal. They shouldn’t have walked away, but you know why they walked away? Because they have elections coming up and it looks good to counter Donald Trump. So, you know, these are things that we’re going to try to work out. I know I’m probably going to reach out to Doug Ford, but you know, Canada is the

6:22 only other country than China. China and Canada are the only countries that retaliated against the United States for tariffs. Not good company to be with China. And also, I worry that Prime Minister Carney is leaning way too much into his relationship with China. Last January, he made a comment in China that China is part of the New

6:44 World Order. They’re an enemy and an adversary of the United States. They’re bringing in, I think, 50,000 to 70,000 people electric Chinese vehicles into the United States, and they’re taking advantage of these things that are bypassing the U.S.

7:01 Speaker 1 What I understand from the president is that China is selling cars to Canada, and Canada is selling the cars back to the United States as Canadian cars, not Chinese cars.

7:19 Speaker 2 Exactly. And that’s bypassing, that is bypassing the law and giving China, they’re basically giving China an inside, you know, workaround to get into the United States to sell cheap goods and to compete with our American car industry and our workers and the people that build our great American cars.

7:38 And Trump is trying to protect that. And I think that people don’t understand that this is really what’s going on. There’s a It’s time that Canada, you know, really come to the table and recognize that we are a great partner for them. And they moving to China is really, you know, not in the interest of the United States,

8:00 but it’s also not in the interest of Canada.

8:03 Speaker 1 Well, Claudia Tenney, one of the greatest Congresswoman women I know. Thank you so much for coming on this Sunday morning. And let’s pray for America and let’s. Let’s win for America. And because without a strong Washington, without a strong president, the world, the free world is not going to be free.

8:24 Speaker 2 Thank you so much, John. Great to be on. Happy Labor Day again to everyone.