On Background with Susan Crabtree

Government Accountability Institute
  • 4.0 (8)
  • Politics

On Background with Susan Crabtree, a Government Accountability Institute podcast, exposes corruption and government mismanagement through hard-hitting investigative journalism. Hosted by veteran reporter Susan Crabtree, alongside GAI’s Vice President Eric Eggers, the podcast leverages confidential “on background” insights to uncover truths behind political headlines.

  1. Jul 30

    Newsom, Becerra, and a Secret Service in Freefall | Ep. 33

    Susan Crabtree has spent months reporting on a Secret Service losing control of its own ranks. This week the pattern got harder to ignore. A Miami agent wanted his name out of her story. Then police arrested him for leading a near-fatal hazing. Eric Eggers and Susan walk through five agent arrests this year, the resurfaced Vanity Fair essay reopening Gavin Newsom's 2007 affair, and Javier Becerra's role in losing track of 140,000 migrant children as he eyes the California governor's office.

  2. Jul 23

    190,000 Noncitizens on California's Voter Rolls, and the State Is Fighting to Keep Them | Ep. 32

    DHS says it found 278,000 noncitizens registered to vote across four states, with 190,000 in California alone. New Jersey already admitted 6,600 on its own rolls. California refuses to hand over its voter file and rewrote its voter ID ballot measure overnight. Susan Crabtree and Eric Eggers break down the money, the machine, and the fight over the November vote.

  3. Jul 9

    The DEA Policy That Let Millions of Fentanyl Pills Hit the Street | Ep. 31

    A DEA agent seized fentanyl headed for the streets of Albuquerque. His own government punished him for it. On this episode of On Background, Susan Crabtree sits down with Tristan Leavitt, president of Empower Oversight, the law firm representing DEA Special Agent David Howell. Howell blew the whistle on a policy that let hundreds of thousands of fentanyl pills keep moving through New Mexico so investigators could build bigger cases against the traffickers above them. The parallels to the ATF's Fast and Furious scandal are direct, and the human cost was worse. Leavitt walks through how a 2019 policy requiring agents to seize fentanyl whenever practical got quietly gutted under the Biden Justice Department, how Howell was sidelined and blocked from testifying after he raised concerns, and how a second DEA whistleblower has since come forward describing a separate case where the same tactic let millions more pills hit the street. New Mexico's fentanyl deaths spiked 21% even as the national rate fell. Leavitt also addresses the role of Chinese precursor chemicals, the Mexican cartels, and Biden-era border policy in fueling the crisis, and explains where the congressional and inspector general investigations stand now.

  4. Jul 1

    The Musician Who Won't Apologize for Loving His Country | Ep. 30

    John Ondrasik of Five for Fighting joins Susan Crabtree and Eric Eggers to talk about performing on the USS Nimitz for America's 250th, bringing a freed hostage on stage to play piano, and why patriotism became a political flashpoint. He explains how a song written after October 7th connected him to hostage families, why he thinks the arts decide the culture war, and what a California flag ban says about the country right now. Susan and Eric dig into the drop in national pride, the media's role, and whether the divide is as deep as the headlines claim. On Background is a production of the Government Accountability Institute.

  5. Jun 26

    Newsom's Ten: The Associates He Hopes You Forget Before 2028 | Ep. 29

    Susan Crabtree and Jed McFatter return to walk through ten figures in Gavin Newsom's political orbit who later faced charges, convictions, or prison. They trace verified election coercion in his first run for San Francisco mayor, the bribery cases reaching into his former staff, and the federal scrutiny now aimed at Jennifer Siebel Newsom's nonprofit and the millions flowing between it and her for-profit film company. The conversation closes on the socialist wave in New York and what it signals for Los Angeles and California. Read the reporting referenced in this episode in the California Globe and City Journal. Get the full investigation in the book Fool's Gold.

  6. Jun 18

    The Feds Have a Roadmap to Newsom. It's Called Fool's Gold | Ep. 28

    Newsom says Trump invented an investigation to stop his 2028 run. The truth: prosecutors in Sacramento opened it before Trump took office. A whistleblower came forward last year. His chief of staff already pleaded guilty. Susan Crabtree and Jed McFatter lay out the rest alongside Eric Eggers.

  7. Jun 11

    The California Election Was Decided Before Anyone Voted | Ep. 27

    On Background with Susan Crabtree

  8. May 28

    Ep. 26 | California's $6 Gas and the Reality Star Who's Beating the Mayor

    California's primary is next week and the numbers are wild! A reality TV star is within 1 point of the sitting LA mayor. One Democrat running for governor said on camera that California "needs Chevron" while taking their checks. Another has spent $195 million on ads and is still stuck in the polls. And two Republicans are splitting the vote in a way that may hand the governor's race entirely to Democrats, cutting off the only real check on Gavin Newsom's record. Susan Crabtree and Eric Eggers break it all down on this week's On Background.

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Ratings & Reviews

4
out of 5
8 Ratings

About

On Background with Susan Crabtree, a Government Accountability Institute podcast, exposes corruption and government mismanagement through hard-hitting investigative journalism. Hosted by veteran reporter Susan Crabtree, alongside GAI’s Vice President Eric Eggers, the podcast leverages confidential “on background” insights to uncover truths behind political headlines.

Information

  • Creator
    Government Accountability Institute
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    33
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2025 All rights reserved.
  • Show Website
    On Background with Susan Crabtree

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