Jack Abramoff: Bringing Down the House Part 1

Scamfluencers

Wondery

Society & Culture

4.1 • 7K Ratings

🗓️ 9 September 2024

⏱️ 48 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Jack Abramoff got his start bending the rules while he was still in elementary school… and never stopped. At first, he works to advance right-wing causes he believes in. Jack’s principles start to fade once he finds his true calling: using pay-to-play politics to amass wealth and power for himself and his friends. Years before calls to drain the swamp, Jack Abramoff was The Swamp Thing.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Wundry Plus subscribers can listen to scam influencers early and ad free right now.
0:04.6	Join Wundry Plus in the Wundry App or Apple Podcasts.
0:07.4	Sarah, do you know what a lobbyist is by chance?
0:17.0	You know, you'd be surprised to know that I do.
0:20.0	It's like a representative of a private interest and their job is to push government officials to pass laws and they use money to do it.
0:30.0	They promise certain things. It's like an exchange so that whatever they're representing gets
0:34.7	you know funded or legalized or whatever. I am actually surprised that you know what a lobbyist is and you knew so fast because it is one of those jobs that's like distinctly American like you and I never heard really about lobbyists that much growing up. It's like what's a comptroller? What's a district attorney? I don't really know what these words mean.
0:54.3	Yeah, I mean I'm sure we have some form of lobbying in Canada, but it is one of those things that is a bit
1:00.5	vague and I think kind of on purpose, you know? Well, Sarah, here's the good news.
1:05.5	Today, you're going to learn so much about lobbying that you're going to wish that you could
1:09.8	forget it.
1:17.0	It's June 2001 and Michael Scanlon is sweating hard as he runs across a fancy
1:21.2	racquetball cord in Washington, D.C.
1:24.2	Michael is a fair-haired guy in his early 30s.
1:27.2	He used to be a press secretary for a member of Congress
1:29.8	and currently has his own PR firm.
1:32.1	So he normally wears suits and ties.
1:34.4	Today he's in shorts and sneakers, but he's still definitely working.
1:39.3	Michael's opponent is a super successful lobbyist named Jack Abramoff.
1:43.0	Jack is about a decade older than Michael.
1:45.0	He's broad-shouldered and bulky with hawk-like features.
1:49.0	Michael and Jack are both athletic and hyper-competitive. The two are furiously battling it out,
	...

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