Next Up with Mark Halperin
How China is Weaponizing America's Immigration System, with Peter Schweizer, PLUS Why Ossoff Has Democrats Buzzing
10 Feb 2026
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Welcome, everybody. We're back. I'm Mark Halperin. Thank you all Nexters for convening today. Gather around, gather around. We've got a great program for you today. I'm Mark Halperin, editor-in-chief of the live interactive video platform, Two-Way, and your guide through all the noise to get to the place in the clearing where we can see what's next up. Grateful to have you here.
By the time we're done, you are going to be well ahead of everybody, foolish enough to skip the program. Here's the plan for today.
Chapter 2: What energizes Democrats about Jon Ossoff's recent speech?
First, I'm going to give you my reported monologue on Democrats thinking they found a messenger or at least a message. John Ossoff. The Democratic senator from Georgia gave a big speech over the weekend that had a lot of Democrats and Republicans buzzing. My reported monologue on what they're saying about why what Ossoff said may well be a template for Democrats in 2026 and 2028.
Then the rest of the episode we're spending with a guy who's been very successful writing about the power players in Washington in politics in both parties. Peter Schweitzer's here. He's the brains behind a new number one New York Times bestseller called The Invisible Coup.
We're going to dissect how foreign adversaries of the United States and China and the government of Mexico in his reporting do things with immigration into this country that are not necessarily, to say the least, for the good of the United States. What's happening with China in particular?
as you'll hear from Peter, is quite something, as they basically take advantage of our immigration policies to create competitive asymmetrical advantages over the United States. We will dig deep with Peter on this reporting. It will surprise you and alarm you, I suspect. But before Peter's here, we're going to talk about what Senator Ossoff said over the weekend and why Democrats are so fired up.
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Just go to bankonyourself.com slash mark and get your free report. Again, bankonyourself.com slash mark, bankonyourself.com slash mark. All right, next up, my report and my luck. Throughout my career, as I've talked to people in both parties in politics, there's an irony when it comes to the question of messaging, right?
Not the policies, but the messaging, the communication, how it's talked about. Both sides say the same thing. They always say our side, say the Republicans will say about the Democrats and vice versa, our side's not good at messaging. They are so good at messaging. Our policies are better, but they're so good at messaging.
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Chapter 3: How is China exploiting U.S. immigration policies?
Democrats have struggled to message in the Trump era. Why is that? Well, first of all, because President Trump creates these distractions, right? He talks about things that make Democrats so angry. A lot of it has to do with violations of norms, has to do with stuff that election integrity. Some voters care, but not all voters care. And it gets them off talking about the economy.
And then the other thing, President Trump's good at talking about issues where his party's popular, where Democrats are on the wrong ends of things. So he gets Democrats away from talking about things where Democrats are more popular. And Trump is pretty good about talking about things that Democrats lose on.
He lures, his lord continues to lure Democrats into fights where Trump thinks he can win. And Trump knows even when his position might not be as popular, he can fight them to a draw because he's such a great communicator.
The challenge for Democrats as they think about the 2026 midterms has been they want to talk about the economy because they know affordability is where Trump is weak and where voters care the most. But they're daily outraged by Donald Trump. They're outraged by what they say is the most corrupt administration of all time. They're outraged by what he does on social media.
They're outraged about the destruction of the East Room, of the White House. There's so many things they're outraged about. And so the challenge has been, as the party has thought about, what's our message for 2026?
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Chapter 4: What is the significance of birthright citizenship in the context of immigration?
The challenge has been How do they talk about the economy without failing to say the things that they feel in their heart and that they know a lot of the base cares about, which is all the things they're outraged about, about the conduct of the president of his administration. So that's been an evolving debate within the Democratic Party.
And you see it publicly in the way Democratic leaders like Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer talk about things. They've of late tried to fuse the two of late. You've heard them say, you know, this corruption is bad because it's keeping working people from getting tax breaks that are going to Trump's cronies. That's been the message.
So this weekend on Saturday in Atlanta, John Ossoff gave a 30 minute speech that really set off my sources in both parties. and caused me to do a lot of reporting about what's going on here with this guy. He's a Senate candidate. He's the incumbent Democratic Senator. He's trying to win his second term.
John Ossoff was a longtime congressional staffer, ran for a House seat in Georgia and lost, and then ran for a Senate seat and won. He's a liberal Democrat, young guy from Georgia who's running for reelection. And he's favored to win reelection, even though it's a state that President Trump won. It's more of a red state than a blue state for sure. Something of a purple state.
But there's something about that speech that really got people talking. Now, they talked a little bit. about Ossoff as a presidential candidate in 2028, and I touted that in my newsletter, and I took a little heat for that. But mostly they talked about the message.
So I've been saying to Democrats and Republicans, what was it about that message that you found so important as a template from the Democratic side in a positive way and from the Republican side in kind of an afraid way, in kind of a way that said, if Democrats really imitate what Ossoff did, they will be formidable in the fall.
And it has to do with rising above the traps that Donald Trump has set for Democrats for over a decade now, where, as I said, he gets them to talk about issues that are not of primary concern to a lot of voters, working class voters in both parties and independent voters. They might be appealing to the MSNOW crowd.
but also issues on which Democrats are less popular, where the Republican position on something like immigration or the Republican position on trans athletes in women's and girls' sports, where the Democrats are on the wrong side of public opinion. So Ossoff is an interesting guy. He's been on my radar for a while. Any Democrat who wins a –
Senate seat, any statewide race in the South these days has got something going on. He's a very idealistic guy. He's very smart. He's a very smart political operator, very smart policy. He's unusual in how idealistic he is.
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Chapter 5: How does the Mexican government influence immigration to the U.S.?
Young, energetic, serious, idealistic, very likable, understands politics and organizing, understands rhetoric. But put aside whether John Ossoff might run for president in 2028, and certainly he's got to get reelected in Georgia this year.
And even though he's ahead in the polls right now and against a crowded Republican primary, three guys running to face off against him, you can't take it for granted. It's going to be a tough race. Any Democrat winning statewide in the South, even an incumbent, is going to be tough.
So leave aside the question of whether Ossoff could be a presidential or vice presidential candidate anytime soon and focus on this question. Why did Republicans look at that speech? and say, wow, that was well written, well delivered. And why do Democrats say this speech is a template? So I talked to a bunch of folks this week. Here's what they told me.
First of all, Ossoff understands that the table stakes for being someone who inspires the base of the Democratic Party is you got to take on Donald Trump and you got to be on the news and you got to be aggressive and you have to speak in a plain way about calling him out. Gavin Newsom has been the leader in this for the Democrats on X, going right hard at the president. So here's Ossoff on that.
Table stakes, tough on Trump, talking about that social media post the president did that had a depiction of Barack and Michelle Obama as monkeys, as apes. Here's John Ossoff from his speech in Georgia on Saturday, S1.
Now, many of you are here because you just can't stand what's being done to our country. You're seeing what I'm seeing, right? The president posting about the Obamas like a Klansman at 1 a.m.
Now, that's got resonance, of course, in Georgia, talking about the president as a Klansman, but throughout the Democratic Party, to paint that vivid picture of the president in the middle of the night, up late on social media, comparing him to a Klansman. Again, table stakes. You got to go hard at Trump.
But you also, and this is maybe the heart of why Democrats reacted so well to this, you got to fuse up, they say, talking about the economy with what he calls the corruption of the Trump administration.
The notion that a president who's focused on enriching himself, enriching his family, enriching his special interests cronies is not gonna be working to make the lives of real people better in the United States. Here's a couple of the examples from this speech. And again, Democrats looked at this and said that this is the template. S5, please.
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Chapter 6: What role does birth tourism play in U.S. immigration from China?
Now you remember we were told that MAGA was for working class Americans. You remember that? But this is a government of, by, and for the ultra-rich. It is the wealthiest cabinet ever. This is the Epstein class ruling our country.
All right. The Epstein class is a phrase from the speech that so many Democrats and Republicans have cited to say that's very vivid, right? It takes the energy and anger that exists across the political spectrum in many quarters about.
about Epstein, about this notion of a group of rich men and women protecting special interests, corruption behind the scenes at the expense of little people, playing by different rules. Bill Clinton used to say he was working for the people who played hard, worked by the rules, and got the shaft from the wealthy.
And then this notion of special interests, powerful special interests, going straight at what has been Donald Trump's greatest strength on the national stage now for more than a decade, converting the Republican Party into the working class party. That's Ossoff's attempt to say, we're the working class party, MAGA does not stand for the working class.
Here's more along the same lines from John Ossoff, S7, please.
Now look, defeating Donald Trump and his allies is essential, but it's only part of the job ahead. Because Donald Trump is a symptom of a deeper disease. Decades of deepening political corruption, growing inequality of power and wealth. These are the failures of an ancient and visionless political class entrenched in a system built to keep them in office forever.
Ladies and gentlemen, that could be out of the mouths of Donald Trump in the main, because the long arc of the Democrats' disillusionment with the party as a working class party, the long arc of the rise of Bernie Sanders, the long arc of the rise of Donald Trump,
is the decline in manufacturing the distrust over over uh trade deals the belief in poll after poll of americans saying my kids and grandkids won't have the same economic opportunity that i have the belief that the system is rigged for the powerful and the wealthy.
What John Ossoff is doing in this speech is trying to reclaim that, to say, don't believe that Donald Trump is the one who can do this. Don't believe the Republican Party is. Don't believe that the elites of both parties are the ones who are working on behalf of the working class. He's saying, I'm going to be part of a leader to do that, to actually work on behalf of the working class.
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Chapter 7: How are Chinese pilots being trained in the U.S.?
2024, rather, certainly in 2024, in part because they were better organizers. The Republicans knew how to turn out voters. And Ossoff, again, he's a senator, but he's got the spirit and the mentality of an organizer. To win in Georgia as a Democrat, you need to turn out folks. You need to turn out liberals, white liberals. You need to turn out Democrats, Hispanic voters.
Listen to John Ossoff organizing for himself at his rally, telling everybody, take out your phone and sign up. This is S6, please.
If you're looking for something to do, this is something we can do right now. I want you to take out your phones. You got them? Hold them up. Let me see them. All right. You are going to text JOIN to 51015. Everybody watching online, it's 51015. Text JOIN. All right. You got it? Hold that phone up when you're done. There you go. Atlanta, say VOTE. Say VOTE.
Now, look, I'm not saying John Othoff is going to win his race. I'm not saying he's ever going to run for president, let alone in 2028. What I'm saying is my reporting demonstrated that this speech quite struck a chord. If you're interested in politics, go watch the whole thing. It's on YouTube.
But the excerpts I played showed you what they want now is they want someone who will take it to Trump. who will be optimistic, who will fuse the notion of holding Trump accountable for what they say is favoring of special interests and how that connects the real economy for working people, and will organize to try to win these elections.
John Ossoff, in that one 30-minute speech, inspired Democrats from around the country to say, there is a winning message. We do not have to run in 2026 in fear. And as I said, I heard from more than a few Republicans as well, and I called folks about it in addition. They see a template there. They worry that if Democrats stick with this message with discipline,
It could be tough for them in the midterms. Ossoff is a very skilled candidate, so not everybody can do what he did there in that speech. But that message, that message, I guarantee you, you're going to hear more Democrats talk about the Epstein class.
You're going to hear more Democrats pivot from criticizing Trump for process things and for violations of norms and for some of the business deals, pivot from that to connecting it up to the economy. and saying the reason the economy is not working for the working class is because of these special interest things that they're saying the president does.
This is a big moment for the Democratic Party because they think they finally found a winning message from a messenger who inspired them. All right. I'd love to know what you think about that. Let me get an email from you. Tell me what you think. I'd love to hear from you. Send me an email. NextUpHalpern at gmail.com.
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Chapter 8: What strategies does Peter Schweizer suggest regarding immigration policy?
Again, NextUpHalpern at gmail.com. Two quick housekeeping notices always to keep you ahead of the curve to know what's next up if you're watching on our YouTube channel. You're potentially missing the full experience if you don't go in there to subscribe. Make sure you get every bit of content we post on YouTube by subscribing to the YouTube channel. Go to YouTube.com slash NextUpHalpern.
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Tell them to sign up as well to make sure they always know what's coming next up. All right, stay tuned. Next up after the quick break, when we come back, Peter Schweitzer is going to be here. He's the author of the bestselling book, number one New York Times bestseller, The Invisible Coup. He's the president of the Government Accountability Institute.
And what he's going to tell you about what China and Mexico have done to basically infiltrate this country with folks coming across our borders will astound you and probably piss you off. Peter Schweitzer is next up. An e-commerce business order fulfillment can make or break your success.
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All right, next up and joining me now, an author of a book that's doing quite well commercially and has inspired an important discussion, at least here in North America. Peter Schweitzer is the author of the bestseller, The Invisible Coop, in two weeks on number one on the New York Times list. Also, he is president of the Government Accountability Institute.
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