Schweizer: Gerrymandering is as old as the United States

The Drill Down with Peter Schweizer

Government Accountability Institute

News Commentary, News, Daily News, Politics

4.9 • 627 Ratings

🗓️ 21 May 2026

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

With important mid-term elections coming in November, “the latest rage in politics is cracking and packing,” says Peter Schweizer. “Gerrymandering is in the news right now,” says co-host Eric Eggers on the most recent episode of The Drill Down. “Cracking is when you spread out your opposition's voters into different districts. Packing is the reverse of that – when you pack your opponent's voters into a single district.” They discuss the long history of politicians trying to choose their own voters.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Research that resonates.
0:05.0	He's the president of the Government Accountability Institute, Peter Switzer.
0:09.0	Peter Schweitzer. Peter Schweitzer. Peter Schweitzer has spent many years, in fact, probably done a more comprehensive job than anyone's ever done,
0:18.0	chronicling the corruption by the powerful in Washington.
0:26.1	Be very prescient Eric Eggers. Join me right now is Government Accountability Institute Research Director, Eric Eggers. We're going to take information that we've learned, that people like
0:30.6	Peter Schweitzer have uncovered, and we're going to try to go further. Great investigative reporting,
0:36.1	Peter. You're the only one doing it.
0:37.6	Thank God.
0:38.6	Eric Eggers from the Government Accountability Institute and co-hosts of that great podcast, The Drilled Down with Peter Schweitzer.
0:45.7	This is The Drill Down with Peter Schweitzer.
0:49.9	Hi, it's Peter Schweitzer and welcome to The Drill Down.
0:52.5	Well, apparently the latest rage in politics is cracking and packing.
0:58.7	We're going to unpack what that actually is with Eric Eggers. Eric, you have any experience with cracking or packing?
1:05.8	Well, of course I do, Peter Schweitzer. I work with you. Every book you come out with is cracking open these
1:13.2	latest scandals and packing the brains of the readers with news revelations. Look, it's your intro,
1:19.6	bro. I'm just trying to make the best of it. Well, to set the record straight, cracking,
1:23.7	packing is actually legitimate. Those are legitimate names for gerrymandering.
1:30.5	Gerrymandering, of course, is in the news right now.
1:32.6	That's the practice of reshaping congressional districts to sort of maximize your count.
1:38.2	Cracking is when you spread out your opposition's voters in different districts so you can maximize the number.
1:45.1	Now, these are like legitimate terms.
1:46.7	This is like 100%.
	...

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