Author: Claire DePree

MAGA Republicans stooped to new lows last week with their extremism, hypocrisy, chaos, and — as President Biden would call it — malarkey. In case you missed it: JD Vance refused to admit Donald Trump lost the 2020 election and again whitewashed the violence of January 6; Trump still refuses to commit to accepting this November’s election results; Vance called Marjorie Taylor Greene — a notorious ultra-MAGA hurricane conspiracy theorist and election denier — a “great friend”; new reporting revealed Trump repeatedly inserted politics into natural disasters as president; Vance fundraised with election denier Scott Taylor; Vance brazenly lied to the American people about Trump’s efforts to dismantle the Affordable Care Act; new reporting made clear that another Trump term would bring more failures and broken promises to America’s auto industry, and Vance indicated that Trump will again let manufacturing plants in Michigan close; reporting revealed that Vance asked the Biden-Harris administration for over $200 million from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law despite spending months trashing the bill; and RNC Co-Chair Lara Trump dismissed abortion as a “niche issue.”

At the vice presidential debate, JD Vance refused to admit Donald Trump lost the 2020 election and once again whitewashed the violence of January 6…

ABC News: “At VP debate, JD Vance refuses to say Trump lost in 2020, downplays events of Jan. 6”

“In one of the most notable exchanges of the vice presidential debate, Republican candidate JD Vance refused to say former President Donald Trump lost the 2020 election and downplayed the events of Jan. 6, 2021, when a pro-Trump mob stormed the U.S. Capitol to try to stop the ceremonial certification of the results.

“The Ohio senator also declined to rule out challenging the outcome of the 2024 race, even if votes were certified by every state leader as legitimate.

“Minnesota Democratic Gov. Tim Walz, Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate, expressed exasperation and disbelief. He said such denialism had to stop because it was ‘tearing our country apart.’”

NBC News: “‘Damning non-answer’: Vance refuses to acknowledge Trump lost the 2020 election”

“JD Vance refused to acknowledge that Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential election during the vice presidential debate Tuesday and downplayed the seriousness of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, which injured more than 140 law enforcement officers. He also declined to say whether he would seek to challenge the results of this year’s election.”

… while Trump STILL refuses to commit to accepting this November’s election results.

Washington Post: “Donald Trump continued to stir doubt Tuesday about whether he will accept the outcome of the November presidential election. Asked in Milwaukee whether he trusts the election process, the former president told reporters, ‘I’ll let you know in about 33 days.’

“Trump, who has repeatedly denied his 2020 reelection loss, made the comment after saying in response to a previous question that he wants a ‘fair, honest election.’”

Vance called Marjorie Taylor Greene — a notorious ultra-MAGA hurricane conspiracy theorist and election denier — a “great friend.”

JD Vance: “We have got another great, strong, woman leader in Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene — I know we’re in her district, where’s Marjorie? Please say hello. Now you may not know this, but one of the very first endorsements, and frankly the first really important endorsement, that I got when I was running in the Republican Senate primary in Ohio a few years ago was from Marjorie Taylor Greene, so she’s been a great friend of mine. She’s a loyal person, and you guys have a hell of a congresswoman here in Marjorie.”

Marjorie Taylor Greene: “Yes they can control the weather.

It’s ridiculous for anyone to lie and say it can’t be done.”

ABC News: “Marjorie Taylor Greene says if she ran Jan. 6 Capitol attack, ‘We would have won’”

Newsweek: “Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene has shared a video to Twitter that argues that the 2020 presidential election was stolen through a combination of the COVID-19 pandemic and voter fraud.”

Daily Beast: “Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Trump-backed candidate who won a Republican primary runoff this week and will very likely win the general race in her deep-red district, said in 2018 video unearthed by Media Matters: ‘We had witnessed 9/11, the terrorist attack in New York and the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania and the so-called plane that crashed into the Pentagon. It’s odd there’s never any evidence shown for a plane in the Pentagon. But anyways, I won’t—I’m not going to dive into the 9/11 conspiracy. But 9/11 had happened. Our country was very much into a war.’”

As Americans are still recovering from Hurricane Helene, new reporting revealed Trump repeatedly inserted politics into natural disasters as president.

E&E News: “Trump initially refused to give California wildfire aid because it’s a blue state, ex-aide says”

“[A] review of Trump’s record by POLITICO’s E&E News and interviews with two former Trump White House officials show that the former president was flagrantly partisan at times in response to disasters and on at least three occasions hesitated to give disaster aid to areas he considered politically hostile or ordered special treatment for pro-Trump states.

“Mark Harvey, who was Trump’s senior director for resilience policy on the National Security Council staff, told E&E News on Wednesday that Trump initially refused to approve disaster aid for California after deadly wildfires in 2018 because of the state’s Democratic leanings.

“Trump changed his mind after Harvey pulled voting results to show him that heavily damaged Orange County, California, had more Trump supporters than the entire state of Iowa, Harvey said.

“‘We went as far as looking up how many votes he got in those impacted areas … to show him these are people who voted for you,’ said Harvey, who recently endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris alongside more than 100 other Republican former national security officials.”

Washington Post: “No, Biden didn’t take FEMA relief money to use on migrants — but Trump did”

“Trump falsely claims FEMA has run out of disaster money — and then falsely says that’s because money instead was spent on migrants. There is no evidence the Biden administration spent FEMA disaster money on migrants. Rather, that’s what Trump did.”

A former Trump official admitted “it would be impossible to do a transition without including Project 2025 people.”

New York Post: “‘Heritage, because of Project 2025, is radioactive,’ Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick told The Post … one former member of the Trump presidential personnel office (PPO) [claimed] ‘it would be impossible to do a transition without including Project 2025 people.’

“Lutnick’s team has ‘already reached out’ to people affiliated with Project 2025, the source went on, arguing there is no possibility of staffing a second Trump administration ‘unless he’s going outside of the conservative movement.’

“The former PPO staffer added that the Project 2025 database includes Republicans from a wide-ranging list of different groups, including Turning Point USA and ‘state legislative staff.’”

Vance fundraised with Scott Taylor, an election-denying extremist who has spread baseless conspiracies about the 2020 election results.

Scott Taylor: “Look, as I said before, there are tons of irregularities in the 2020 election that never happened before, right? There are people that have problems with it … There’s tons of things out there that changed in 2020 that are still there now.”

Vance: “President Trump has said … there were problems in 2020 and my own belief is that we should fight about those issues.”

Vance: “[Trump] peacefully gave over power on January the 20th.”

Vance: “Donald Trump and I think that there were problems in 2020.”

On the debate stage, Vance brazenly lied to the American people about Trump’s numerous efforts to dismantle the Affordable Care Act. 

Roll Call: “Vance’s attempt to rewrite Trump’s Obamacare history”

“In a brazen attempt at rewriting history, Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance claimed during Tuesday night’s debate that former President Donald Trump was working to ‘salvage’ the 2010 health care law while in office.

“Trump’s clear intent, along with Republicans when they controlled both the House and Senate during the first two years of his term, was to repeal and replace the 2010 health care law, which is often referred to as Obamacare. The then-president held a preemptive victory celebration at the White House when one version of a bill to repeal the law passed the House, and at one point pushed for repealing now and replacing later if Senate Republicans could not coalesce around an alternative.”

New reporting made clear that another Trump term would only bring more failures and broken promises to America’s auto industry…

Detroit News: “History casts doubt on Donald Trump’s auto industry promises”

“Former President Donald Trump has been promising Michigan voters this fall that he can revive the state’s auto industry and return it to ‘greatness,’ but the Republican nominee failed to fully deliver on similar guarantees, made eight years ago, before his first term in the White House.

“On Friday night, Trump told a crowd at Macomb Community College in Warren that if he’s elected this fall, he’s going to bring back Michigan’s auto industry ‘at levels that have never been seen before.’ About eight years ago, on Oct. 31, 2016, at the same venue, Trump told another Michigan crowd that he would ‘bring your jobs back’ and, if elected in November 2016, ‘you won’t lose one plant.’

“Yet, the number of jobs in vehicle and parts manufacturing in Michigan declined during Trump’s first term — including before the COVID-19 pandemic hit — according to data from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. And while there were some additional investments made by the industry in Michigan over his four years in office, there were also auto plants that closed in the state, including the General Motors Co. Warren Transmission plant in 2019.”

… and Vance indicated that Trump would again let manufacturing plants in Michigan close.

Detroit News: “Vance won’t commit to $500M federal grant for building EVs at Michigan auto plant”

“Republican vice presidential hopeful JD Vance would not commit a second Trump administration to honoring the Biden administration’s $500 million federal grant to General Motors Co. to convert a Cadillac sedan assembly plant in Michigan into a future electric vehicle plant.

“The Biden administration has said the conversion of GM’s Lansing Grand River Plant to assembling EVs would save 650 jobs and create 50 new positions. The Detroit automaker has signaled the assembled battery packs for the Lansing plant would come from the new battery plant it is constructing in nearby Delta Township, west of Lansing. …

“Vance’s comments on EVs while in Michigan on Wednesday tracked with Trump’s criticism of the Biden administration’s incentives for automakers to produce more electric vehicles.

“The Biden administration has not imposed a ban on gas-powered vehicle or required consumers to purchase EVs. But it has put in place numerous incentives and restrictions on future tailpipe emissions that incentivized automakers to build and sell more EVs.”

Recent reporting revealed that Vance asked the Biden-Harris administration for over $200 million from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law — despite spending months trashing it as “crazy” and a “huge, huge mistake.”

Associated Press: “Vance criticized an infrastructure law as a candidate then embraced it as a senator”

“As he campaigned for the Senate two years ago, JD Vance harshly criticized a bipartisan 2021 law to invest more than $1 trillion in America’s crumbling infrastructure, calling it a ‘huge mistake’ shaped by Democrats who want to spend big taxpayer dollars on ‘really crazy stuff.’

“That hasn’t stopped the first-term Ohio senator and Republican vice-presidential nominee from seeking more than $200 million in federal money made available through the law for projects across his state, according to records reviewed by The Associated Press.”

RNC co-chair Lara Trump dismissed abortion as a “niche issue,” even as women across the country are suffering the horrifying impacts of Trump’s abortion bans.

Lara Trump: “[Democrats] are focusing on very niche issues like abortion.”

NBC News: “A dramatic rise in pregnant women dying in Texas after abortion ban”

ProPublica: “Abortion Bans Have Delayed Emergency Medical Care. In Georgia, Experts Say This Mother’s Death Was Preventable.”

The post MAGA Malarkey: The Extremism You Missed From Republicans Last Week appeared first on Democrats.

In response to JD Vance saying he would seek to defund Planned Parenthood, DNC Spokesperson Aida Ross released the following statement:

“Women are dying preventable deaths because Donald Trump overturned Roe v. Wade, and JD Vance made clear he and Trump would further rip away access to reproductive health care by defunding Planned Parenthood. Vance is once again proving he doesn’t care about protecting lives — just Trump’s extreme anti-choice Project 2025 agenda to ban abortion nationwide. Voters see through this cynical attack on reproductive health care services from contraception to cancer screenings. This November, women across the country will make it loud and clear that they want nothing to do with the Trump-Vance ticket’s dangerous, out-of-touch, and downright horrifying assault on our basic freedoms.”

🚨 BREAKING: JD Vance made clear a Trump-Vance administration would defund reproductive health care services if given the chance, which is wildly unpopular with the American people.

Vance: “On the question of defunding Planned Parenthood…our view is we don’t think that taxpayers should fund late term abortions. That has been a consistent view of the Trump campaign the first time around, it will remain a consistent view.”

Vance’s anti-choice record includes wanting abortion to be “illegal nationally,” attacking exceptions for rape and incest, bailing on reproductive freedoms, and more.

CNN: “JD Vance said in 2022 he ‘would like abortion to be illegal nationally’”

“During a podcast interview in January 2022, then-candidate JD Vance said he ‘certainly would like abortion to be illegal nationally’ and was ‘sympathetic’ to the view that a national ban was necessary to stop women from traveling across states to obtain an abortion.”

Vance: “I am 100 percent pro-life, and believe that abortion has turned our society into a place where we see children as an inconvenience to be thrown away rather than a blessing to be nurtured. Eliminating abortion is first and foremost about protecting the unborn, but it’s also about making our society more pro-child and pro-family. The historic Dobbs decision puts this new era of society into motion, one that prioritizes family and the sanctity of all life.”

Newsweek: “J.D. Vance Backs ‘National Standard’ for Abortions”

Daily Beast: “J.D. Vance suggested he would support prohibiting abortion even in cases of rape and incest—and dismissed those catalysts as ‘inconvenient.’”

Vice: “JD Vance Compared Abortion to Slavery”

Ohio Capital Journal: “U.S. Senate GOP prevents contraception access bill from moving ahead”

“Ohio Republican U.S. Sen. JD Vance didn’t vote.”

Independent: “JD Vance didn’t even show up to vote on [IVF protections].”

Jennifer Bendery, Huffington Post: “Vance won’t be at today’s Senate vote…”

The Hill: “Senate Republicans block legislation to codify IVF access”

Republicans who voted against include: JD Vance.

Vanity Fair: “On Wednesday, Senate Republicans are expected to object to Tammy Duckworth’s Right to Build Families Act, because, surprise: They don’t actually care about families and aren’t ‘pro-life.’

“‘It’s idiotic for us to take the bait,’ Senator JD Vance told Politico, as though the measure were some kind of political trap. (He also noted that he had not actually read the bill yet.)”

NBC News: “Senate Republicans block Democratic bill codifying Roe v. Wade abortion protections”

Republicans who voted against include: JD Vance.

TRUMP DID THIS: Reporting shows that abortion bans across the country — which Donald Trump “proudly” made possible and said are “working very brilliantly” — delaying emergency medical care and leading to “preventable” deaths.

NBC News: “A dramatic rise in pregnant women dying in Texas after abortion ban”

ProPublica: “Abortion Bans Have Delayed Emergency Medical Care. In Georgia, Experts Say This Mother’s Death Was Preventable.”

“But ProPublica obtained reports that confirm that at least two women have already died after they couldn’t access legal abortions and timely medical care in their state…

“Thurman’s case marks the first time an abortion-related death, officially deemed ‘preventable,’ is coming to public light. ProPublica will share the story of the second in the coming days… 

“But since abortion was banned or restricted in 22 states over the past two years, women in serious danger have been turned away from emergency rooms and told that they needed to be in more peril before doctors could help. Some have been forced to continue high-risk pregnancies that threatened their lives. Those whose pregnancies weren’t even viable have been told they could return when they were ‘crashing.’”

Trump: “We broke Roe v. Wade and we did something that nobody thought was possible. We gave it back to the states, and the states are working very brilliantly … But they’re working, and it’s working the way it’s supposed to.”

Trump: “I was proudly the person responsible for the ending of Roe v. Wade”

Vance, Trump, and their Project 2025 allies are pushing a dangerous Project 2025 agenda that would ban abortion nationwide, threaten access to IVF and contraception, and rip away reproductive freedoms.

Rolling Stone: “Trump Wants to Ban Abortion Nationwide: Report”

Trump: “There of course remains a vital role for the federal government in protecting unborn life. And it’s very important.”

Trump: “There has to be some form of punishment [for women who have an abortion].”

Barbara Barr, WGAL: “There are ads running that say that you would support certain states with bans monitoring a woman’s pregnancy.”

Trump: “Well that would be up to the states, again. They will make a decision as to how they do it.”

Washington Post: “Vance urged DOJ to enforce Comstock Act, crack down on abortion pills”

New Republic: “On January 20, 2025, conservatives plan to resurrect a 150-year-old defunct law to ban abortion across the nation. This is not a secret plan—far from it. It’s part of the 180-Day Playbook produced by Project 2025, detailing priorities for an incoming conservative president on day one.” 

Politico: “Anti-abortion advocates worked for five decades to topple Roe v. Wade. They’re now laying the groundwork for a yearslong fight to curb in vitro fertilization.

“Since the Alabama Supreme Court ruled last month that frozen embryos are children, the Heritage Foundation and other conservative groups have been strategizing how to convince not just GOP officials but evangelicals broadly that they should have serious moral concerns about fertility treatments like IVF and that access to them should be curtailed.”

Media Matters: “The Heritage Foundation quietly released draconian new IVF policy recommendations for the next GOP president”

“Heritage has been a staunchly anti-IVF voice, supporting Alabama’s controversial Supreme Court ruling that frozen embryos cultivated through IVF treatment have the same rights as living children, and that a person can be held liable for destroying embryos.” 

The 19th: “RNC approves platform that would give rights to fetuses, endangering abortion, IVF” 

“Fetal personhood is widely seen as being in conflict with in vitro fertilization (IVF), which creates embryos outside of the uterus that are later implanted. Fetal personhood bestows the same rights currently reserved for people to embryos from the moment of fertilization.”

Reproductive Freedom for All: “The extensive mandate calls to gut reproductive freedom, including effectively banning medication abortion, ending access to emergency abortion care, attacking contraception, deploying fetal personhood, and undermining IVF in federal policy…

“Project 2025 includes personhood language and policies that propagate the belief that life begins at conception—which could have devastating impacts should it be put into law. This so-called “personhood” language could ban not only abortion but also some forms of birth control and assisted fertility treatments like IVF.”

The Nation: “Project 2025 Has Bad Medicine for HHS”

“And by declaring that life begins at conception, his manifesto appears to commit HHS to finding ways to outlaw IVF, which relies on generating multiple embryos, most of which are not implanted.”

Rolling Stone: “Inside the MAGA Plan to Attack Birth Control, Surveil Women and Ban the Abortion Pill”

Vance: “I’ve reviewed a lot of [Project 2025]. There are some good ideas in there.”

Axios: “[Project 2025] is undeniably a Trump-driven operation.”

The post 🚨 Trump-Vance Ticket: We Would Defund Planned Parenthood appeared first on Democrats.

In response to JD Vance praising Marjorie Taylor Greene — a notorious election denier and conspiracy theorist — as a “great friend” in Georgia today, DNC Rapid Response Director Alex Floyd released the following statement:

“JD Vance took time in Georgia today to shout out his ‘great friend’ right after she finished spreading fresh conspiracy theories about how ‘they’ can control the weather while Georgia is still recovering from Hurricane Helene. Let’s be clear: Marjorie Taylor Greene is a wildly out-of-touch conspiracy theorist and election-denying extremist who is as toxic to voters as the Trump-Vance Project 2025 agenda itself — and that’s just another reason why we’re sure that Vance will have plenty more free time to spend with his ‘great friend’ after this November.”

JD Vance took time in Georgia today to shout out Marjorie Taylor Greene — a notorious extremist, election denier, and unhinged conspiracy theorist.

JD Vance: “We have got another great, strong, woman leader in Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene — I know we’re in her district, where’s Marjorie? Please say hello. Now you may not know this, but one of the very first endorsements, and frankly the first really important endorsement, that I got when I was running in the Republican Senate primary in Ohio a few years ago was from Marjorie Taylor Greene, so she’s been a great friend of mine. She’s a loyal person, and you guys have a hell of a Congresswoman here in Marjorie.”

Greene is a MAGA extremist who has constantly spread conspiracy theories, denied the results of the 2020 election, and downplayed January 6.

Marjorie Taylor Greene: “Yes they can control the weather.

It’s ridiculous for anyone to lie and say it can’t be done.”

The Guardian: “Marjorie Taylor Greene led delegation to visit Capitol attack defendants in jail”

CNN: “Greene again downplays Capitol riot and says it would have been armed if she led it”

ABC News: “Marjorie Taylor Greene says if she ran Jan. 6 Capitol attack, ‘We would have won’”

Newsweek: “Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene has shared a video to Twitter that argues that the 2020 presidential election was stolen through a combination of the COVID-19 pandemic and voter fraud.

“Greene, who was recently appointed to serve on the powerful House of Representatives’ Oversight Committee, shared the video entitled ‘How to steal an election’ on Saturday morning.

“In just over a minute, a narrator alleges a vast conspiracy to steal the 2020 presidential election from Donald Trump involving the media, ‘Big Tech,’ the Democratic Party and others, with a particular focus on President Joe Biden.”

HuffPost: “Controversial Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) is still convinced the 2020 presidential election was rigged but admits she has no evidence of election fraud.

“Greene admitted she had no proof during an interview Friday at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando, Florida, but is sticking with her conviction that the presidential vote was rigged, even though she apparently doesn’t dispute the 2020 election results that made her a congresswoman:

“‘I proudly objected on Jan. 6,’ Greene said. ‘I would object again today because I know for a fact there was so much wrong in that election and I believe it was stolen. Do I know how? No, I don’t know how.’”

Greene, an anti-abortion extremist, has attacked those who support abortion ban exceptions — including a rape survivor — and wants to ban abortion nationwide.

Vanity Fair: “Greene has previously said the overturning of Roe v. Wade was a ‘blessing’ and a ‘miracle,’ and called another Republican lawmaker and rape survivor ‘trash’ for supporting rape exceptions. She’s also told women that if they don’t want to get pregnant they should ‘make better choices’ and ‘choose to not have sex.’”

NBC News: “Marjorie Taylor Greene starts screaming match with Democrats over abortion rights bill”

Tennessee Lookout: “A total of 145 members of Congress from 36 states, who opposed access to mifepristone remaining as it is today, submitted their own 39-page brief in the case, calling on the Supreme Court to limit access.”

Signers include: Marjorie Taylor Greene.

Greene has made mind-boggling, false claims about the September 11, 2001 attacks on our country.

Daily Beast: “Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Trump-backed candidate who won a Republican primary runoff this week and will very likely win the general race in her deep-red district, said in 2018 video unearthed by Media Matters: ‘We had witnessed 9/11, the terrorist attack in New York and the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania and the so-called plane that crashed into the Pentagon. It’s odd there’s never any evidence shown for a plane in the Pentagon. But anyways, I won’t—I’m not going to dive into the 9/11 conspiracy. But 9/11 had happened. Our country was very much into a war.’”

She’s right about one thing: Greene previously vented about her fellow House Republicans and said that Republican voters are “sick and tired of Republicans because they never do anything” and “say all this garbage.”

Greene: “Republican voters across the country are sick and tired of Republicans because they never do anything… [Republicans] say all this garbage… [Americans] feel that Republicans in Congress completely fail them.”

HuffPost: “Marjorie Taylor Greene Makes Startlingly Accurate Confession About Her Own Party”

“Greene, a conspiracy theorist who once spoke at a white nationalist event, said voters must feel that Republicans in Congress have failed them.”

The post JD Vance on Ultra-MAGA Hurricane Conspiracy Theorist Marjorie Taylor Greene: A “Great Friend” appeared first on Democrats.

Job Growth Remains Strong Under Biden-Harris Administration as Reports Show Trump’s Project 2025 Agenda Would Cause Recession, Send Inflation Soaring, and Slow Growth 

In response to today’s jobs report, DNC National Press Secretary ⁨Emilia Rowland⁩ released the following statement:

“Today the American economy marks its 45th month of consecutive job growth under the Biden-Harris administration, with the creation of over 16 million jobs since the start of their term. The contrast couldn’t be starker: Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans continue to push their Project 2025 agenda that would cost America 3.1 million jobs, give giant tax cuts for billionaires and big corporations, end the ACA, cut overtime and make it harder for workers to organize, and impose a national sales tax that would raise costs by nearly $4,000 per year. Trump left office with the worst jobs record since Herbert Hoover and America can’t afford to go back. Americans deserve a president who will fight for the middle class and give everyone a chance to succeed — and that’s Kamala Harris.”

NEW: September’s jobs report shows the 45th consecutive month of job growth under the Biden-Harris administration as unemployment remains low.

Heather Long, Washington Post: “JUST IN: A strong jobs report. The US economy added 254,000 jobs in September. That’s way above expectations and a nice bounce from 159,000 in August. (Both July & August revised up)

Unemployment rate: 4.1%. (Down from 4.2% in August)

Wages: +4% in past year (vs. 2.5% inflation)”

New York Times: “Despite all the hand-wringing, the U.S. labor market remains impressively strong.

“Businesses reported adding 254,000 jobs in September, the government reported on Friday. The number far surpassed forecasts and was the strongest monthly gain since March.”

Washington Post: “Employers added 254,000 jobs in September, reflecting a stronger than expected labor market.”

The contrast in economic visions couldn’t be starker, and majorities of Americans say that Democratic policies are fighting for the middle class while MAGA Republicans only fight for the ultra-wealthy and big corporations.  

The Harris-Walz campaign’s New Way Forward will spur job growth, build up the middle class, boost small businesses, and invest in entrepreneurs.

A New Way Forward for the Middle Class: “Goldman Sachs estimates the biggest boost to the U.S. economy from a Vice President Harris win. They estimate that job growth will be higher and inflation lower than if Donald Trump is elected. A Harris victory would lead to between 10,000 and 30,000 more new jobs per month than if Trump is elected.”

Reuters: “Under Harris, job growth would be 10,000 a month higher than if Trump wins with a divided government, and 30,000 higher than with a Republican sweep, Goldman estimates.”

Axios: “The paper, titled ‘A New Way Forward for the Middle Class,’ says that Harris will ‘call on Congress to pass the first-ever federal ban on price gouging.’

“‘The bill will set rules of the road to make clear that big corporations can’t unfairly exploit consumers during times of crisis to run up excessive corporate profits on food and groceries.’”

Politico: “In her speech, Harris reiterated her support for several other major economic efforts, including a federal ban on corporate price-gouging, expanding tax credits for new small businesses, extending the child tax credit and pledging to build 3 million new homes to address the housing shortage.”

Politico: “Harris’ proposal, released on Tuesday, calls for significantly expanding the tax deduction for start-up expenses from $5,000 to $50,000, while also setting the goal of 25 million new small-business applications during her first term, according to a Harris campaign official granted anonymity to describe details of the plan. The plan also proposes reducing barriers to getting occupational licenses and developing a standard tax deduction for small businesses.”

Donald Trump left office with the worst jobs record of any president in modern American history and his MAGAnomics tax scam – which his Project 2025 agenda would extend – incentivized companies to ship jobs overseas, and screw over American workers. 

Reuters: “How offshoring rolled along under Trump, who vowed to stop it”

The Guardian: “‘He pulled the wool over our eyes’: workers blame Trump for moving jobs overseas” 

“Promises to save US manufacturing and prevent American jobs moving abroad were a key part of Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign. But since Trump took office in January 2017, nearly 200,000 jobs have been moved overseas, based on Trade Adjustment Assistance certified petitions.”

Politico: “Trump hails ‘manufacturing miracle’ as factories bleed jobs”

Washington Post: “President Trump took office at the crest of the longest economic expansion in U.S. history. He leaves presiding over the worst labor market in modern U.S. history, as an already-sputtering economic recovery has turned negative.”

Fortune: “Trump to leave office with the worst jobs record since Herbert Hoover”

Wall Street Journal: “President Trump’s trade war against China didn’t achieve the central objective of reversing a U.S. decline in manufacturing, economic data show, despite tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars of Chinese goods to discourage imports.”

New York Times: “After Years of Growth, Automakers Are Cutting U.S. Jobs”

Bloomberg: “The Offshoring of U.S. Jobs Increased on Trump’s Watch”

Trump has been clear that he would send new, good-paying manufacturing jobs overseas by repealing the Biden-Harris Inflation Reduction Act — which has already helped spur over 330,000 clean energy jobs – and his Project 2025 plans would cost the U.S. millions of  jobs, send inflation soaring, and raise taxes on everyone but the wealthy elite.

Axios: “Trump’s inflation bomb: How his second-term plans could make it worse”

Wall Street Journal: “Economists Say Inflation Would Be Worse Under Trump Than Biden”

USA Today: “Under a Trump administration, inflation would rise from 3% this year to 3.5% in 2025, compared to 2.4% under Harris, the Moody’s analysis shows. At the end of a Trump tenure the U.S. would have 3.1 million fewer jobs than under Harris and a 4.5% unemployment rate, a half percentage point higher.”

The Guardian: “They were billed as a ‘middle-class miracle’ but according to a new book Donald Trump’s $1.5tn tax cuts have helped billionaires pay a lower rate than the working class for the first time in history.”

Politico: “Donald Trump pledged Thursday to rescind any ‘unspent’ funds under the Inflation Reduction Act should he be elected in November — potentially upending key parts of the Democrats’ climate law and its benefits to Republican-led communities.”

Center for American Progress: “Project 2025’s tax plan includes an ‘intermediate tax reform’ that includes changes to tax brackets and corporate tax cuts that would shift the tax burden toward middle-income households. And the ‘fundamental tax reform’ it proposes would replace all individual income and corporate taxes with consumption taxes.”

Congressional Republicans are doing Trump’s bidding and railing against affordable health care and pushing for tax cuts for billionaires. 

NBC News: “The former president made a similar promise in 2016. The following year, he endorsed a Republican-led bill to undo a substantial portion of the law, repealing the ACA’s subsidy extensions and regulations in an attempt to lower costs on the open market. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projected that it would have rescinded insurance coverage for about 23 million people. It also threatened protections for pre-existing conditions.”

CNN: “At the dinner, hosted by billionaire investor John Paulson, Trump told the crowd that one of his core issues for a second term would be extending the sweeping tax cuts that congressional Republicans approved in 2017. While the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act reduced taxes for most Americans, the rich benefited far more than others.”

Axios: “GOP lawmakers cautiously open to Trump’s ACA repeal push”

“What they’re saying: Two top Senate Republicans signaled they could be open to a revived effort.

“‘I think Obamacare has been one of the biggest deceptions on the American people,’ said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas). ‘I mean just look at your health care premiums.’ But he added he would ‘be interested to hear exactly how’ Trump would approach repeal.

“Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), who’s in line to run the Finance Committee if the GOP retakes the Senate, said he’s open to plans that were similar to the 2017 repeal and replace bills.”

Semafor: “What exactly goes into that package is still an open question, however. As [Mike Johnson] mentioned, the core of any bill would be addressing the individual tax cuts passed under Trump that are scheduled to sunset in 2025, and are estimated to cost trillions to fully renew.”

The post NEW: September Marks 45th Month of Consecutive Job Growth Under Biden-Harris Admin, Trump-Vance Agenda Would Cost America Over 3 Million Jobs appeared first on Democrats.

Key Point: “Trump falsely claims FEMA has run out of disaster money — and then falsely says that’s because money instead was spent on migrants. There is no evidence the Biden administration spent FEMA disaster money on migrants. Rather, that’s what Trump did.”

Washington Post: No, Biden didn’t take FEMA relief money to use on migrants — but Trump did

By: Glenn Kessler

• Even though Trump was once president, he still appears to have little clue about the appropriations process. What’s even richer is that when he was president, he did exactly what he claims Biden did — take money from FEMA’s disaster fund to fund migrant programs at the southern border.

• “These claims are completely false,” DHS said in a statement Thursday night. “As Secretary Mayorkas said, FEMA has the necessary resources to meet the immediate needs associated with Hurricane Helene and other disasters. The Shelter and Services Program (SSP) is a completely separate, appropriated grant program that was authorized and funded by Congress and is not associated in any way with FEMA’s disaster-related authorities or funding streams.”

• Trump has a habit of assuming other politicians act in the same way as he would. So we wondered why he would accuse Biden of raiding the FEMA disaster fund to handle undocumented migrants.

• It turns out that’s because he did this! In 2019, the Trump administration, in the middle of hurricane season, told Congress that it was taking $271 million from DHS programs, including $155 million from the disaster fund, to pay for immigration detention space and temporary hearing locations for asylum seekers who have been forced to wait in Mexico. “The U.S. is facing a security and humanitarian crisis on the Southern border,” the administration said in its notice that it was redirecting the funds.

• The monthly reports issued by the FEMA disaster fund show $38 million was plucked and given to Immigration and Customs Enforcement in August that year — just before the prime storm period of September and October.

• The Trump campaign did not respond to questions about Trump’s actions in 2019.

• Trump falsely claims FEMA has run out of disaster money — and then falsely says that’s because money instead was spent on migrants. There is no evidence the Biden administration spent FEMA disaster money on migrants. Rather, that’s what Trump did.

The post ICYMI: Biden Didn’t Take FEMA Relief Money to Use On Migrants — But Trump Did appeared first on Democrats.

Former Trump Official Turned Project 2025 Architect Ken Cuccinelli Even Called to Shrink FEMA, Threatening Its Ability To Provide Aid

As hurricane season ramps up and Project 2025 threatens to gut the NOAA, eliminate the NWS’ federal weather forecasting, and slash FEMA aid for natural disaster response, DNC National Press Secretary Emilia Rowland released the following statement:

“Donald Trump and his Project 2025 cronies’ plans are quite literally a matter of life and death — Trump’s Project 2025 agenda contains plans to end federal weather forecasting at the National Weather Service, eliminate disaster loans for families and small businesses rebuilding after storms, cut assistance for hurricane victims, and slash FEMA aid for natural disaster response as we know it, leaving communities to deal with the catastrophic consequences of hurricanes on their own. This is nothing new for Trump — as president, he botched hurricane responses, spread outlandish misinformation about dangerous and extreme weather events, and personally blocked disaster-stricken areas from receiving lifesaving aid. Americans deserve a leader who understands the critical role that NOAA and the federal government play in supporting communities through their recovery from traumatic weather events, and Donald Trump has proven time and again that he’s not up to the task.” 

Trump’s Project 2025 agenda would gut the NOAA, including eliminating federal weather forecasting, while restricting FEMA’s ability to deliver aid after disasters – even eliminating disaster loans for families and small businesses rebuilding after storms

.

Project 2025’s Mandate for Leadership, pg. 674-5: “This industry’s mission emphasis on prediction and management seems designed around the fatal conceit of planning for the unplannable. That is not to say NOAA is useless, but its current organization corrupts its useful functions. It should be broken up and downsized.”

Project 2025’s Mandate for Leadership, pg. 675: “Focus the NWS on Commercial Operations. Each day, Americans rely on weather forecasts and warnings provided by local radio stations and colleges that are produced not by the NWS, but by private companies such as AccuWeather.”

Project 2025’s Mandate for Leadership, pg. 664: “The National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) should be dismantled and many of its functions eliminated, sent to other agencies, privatized, or placed under the control of states and territories.”

Center for American Progress: “Relatedly, in its section on the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Project 2025 proposes the agency increase the threshold for disaster declarations, thereby making it more difficult for states and localities—and, by extension, the families and businesses that call them home—to qualify for federal aid after disaster strikes.

“Even still, Project 2025—a far-right road map that would gut the country’s nearly 250-year-old system of checks and balances—proposes, on page 750, an ‘end to SBA direct lending,’ the only instance of which is the disaster loan program. Project 2025 suggests privatization as one potential solution and claims, without evidence, that loan availability ‘reduces individuals’ incentives to purchase disaster-related insurance.’”

Former Trump official and Project 2025 architect Ken Cuccinelli has called to shrink FEMA, threatening its ability to help communities deal with the fallout of natural disasters and eliminate disaster preparedness grants.

Ken Cuccinelli, former Trump official and Project 2025 author: “On shrinking FEMA… people think of it as a first responder, it’s not a first responder… If we focus them [FEMA] more narrowly when they are deployed, they will do a better job.”

Verify: “Project 2025 also recommends replacing the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) with private insurance and eliminating preparedness grants for states, localities and special-interest groups. Cuccinelli wrote the plan would incentivize state and local governments to be more proactive in preparing for disasters.  Cuccinelli wrote that FEMA employees in Washington, D.C., should not determine how ‘billions of federal tax dollars’ are allocated for local needs.’”

PolitiFact: “Project 2025 outlines changes to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, including reducing the federal government’s share of local disaster relief contributions from 75% to 25%, privatizing flood insurance, terminating FEMA’s grants and raising the per capita threshold for providing FEMA public assistance. Experts told PolitiFact the changes, if adopted, would reduce FEMA’s support to state and local governments and hinder disaster response.”

Project 2025’s plans to gut NOAA and eliminate the National Weather Service’s federal weather forecasting could lead to disastrous impacts, exposing communities to greater storm risks as they are denied critical life-saving forecasts. 

Capital B News: “Project 2025’s Aim to Gut NOAA May Make Storms Like Helene Even More Devastating”

“‘What NOAA, and the National Weather Service, do is really lifesaving in terms of providing data and making it freely accessible to vulnerable communities,’ said Rachel Cleetus, policy director with the Climate and Energy program at the Union of Concerned Scientists. ‘Project 2025 is trying to remove these public health safeguards, and it is going to have a disproportionate effect on our communities that have a greater exposure to these kinds of environmental risks.’”

National Weather Service: “NOAA’s National Weather Service forecasts, warnings, and the associated emergency responses result in a $3 billion savings in a typical hurricane season. Two-thirds of this savings, $2 billion, is attributed to the reduction in hurricane related deaths, and one-third of this savings, $1 billion, is attributed to a reduction in property-related damage because of preparedness actions.”

HuffPost: “The National Hurricane Center is the lead federal agency for forecasting and tracking tropical weather, which Michael Mann, a climate scientist at the University of Pennsylvania, said is ‘critical to coordinating evacuations and emergency response.’”

NOAA: “NOAA has a long history of leading hurricane observing, research, and forecasting. Advancements in atmospheric and aircraft operations have led to considerable improvements in forecasting hurricane tracks, providing critical information on where and when a storm will make landfall…NOAA uses a suite of tools and observing platforms to monitor ocean features that play a role in hurricane intensification to improve models and forecasts.”

The post Trump-Vance Project 2025 Agenda Ends NWS Free Weather Forecasting, Cuts Assistance for Hurricane Victims, and Imperils FEMA’s Ability To Provide Aid appeared first on Democrats.

Today, new reporting from Real Clear Politics exposes how the Republican-aligned dark money group Fair Election Fund is taking credit for propping up Jill Stein and Cornel West’s spoiler campaigns by investing in paid media in critical swing states. By boosting Stein and West’s candidacies, these Republican allies aim to siphon votes from Vice President Harris and help Donald Trump win the election.  

In response, DNC Senior Advisor Adrienne Watson released the following statement: 

“Republicans are admitting here to buying nearly a million dollars of paid media to prop up Jill Stein and Cornel West’s spoiler candidacies. Stein delivered Trump the presidency in 2016 and she’s working alongside his closest allies to do it again in 2024. Thanks to Fair Election Fund for making it clear that a vote for Stein is a vote for Trump.”

ICYMI: Real Clear Politics: Trump Allies Worked To Keep Jill Stein, Cornel West on Swing State Ballots

By: Philip Wegmann 

• The right has next to nothing in common with Jill Stein and Cornel West, but ideology isn’t the point… Those candidates have the potential to siphon votes away from Vice President Harris in swing states. This nightmare was enough to build a political machine designed to crush any candidate that could divide the anti-Trump coalition and cost Democrats the White House. 
• Candidates like this usually attract such a tiny share of the vote that they amount to a rounding error on election night, but in a close race, where margins are expected to be razor thin, they can be determinative.
• Enter the Fair Election Fund, the Republican-aligned dark money group now taking a victory lap.
• That dark money machine had been working since early this year to cull, first, the candidacy of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and later, Stein and West.
• [In 2016,] Stein won more votes than Clinton lost by in Wisconsin and Michigan. Trump won that state by 23,000 votes. Stein carried 31,000. It was enough to earn Stein the… description of a “spoiler.”
• [T]he Fair Election Fund mobilized. They ran television ads, bought billboards, and even projected images on the North Carolina State Election Board’s building.
• They ran a similar strategy in other battleground states like Michigan, where both Stein and West remain on the ballot.
• The Fair Election Fund ran ads thanking Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin for keeping West on the ballot…
• The fact that [the founder of Fair Election Fund, former Georgia Rep. George Collins,] served four terms in Congress as a Republican and remains a close Trump ally isn’t lost on Democrats. 
• Said [Matt Bennett, executive vice president for Third Way], “It is the height of cynicism for Collins to be doing this.” He put the chances of Stein or West meaningfully competing at “literally 0.00%” and described the Green Party nominee as “an attractive nuisance,” who isn’t serious about environmental issues so much as she represents a serious political threat to Harris.

The post ICYMI: Trump Allies Brag About Propping Up Stein and West’s Spoiler Campaigns appeared first on Democrats.

In response to an unearthed video of JD Vance falsely claiming Donald Trump won the 2020 election – a question Vance refused to answer on the debate stage this week – DNC Rapid Response Director Alex Floyd released the following statement: 

“JD Vance is so desperate to be a loyal MAGA soldier for Donald Trump that he can’t admit the truth: Trump got crushed in the 2020 election by over 7 million votes and is still running on the same losing playbook. Since Trump’s loss four years ago, both he and Vance have consistently attacked our democracy by spreading baseless lies, whitewashing January 6, and refusing to commit to accepting this year’s election results. While the Trump-Vance ticket continues to spew dangerous election denialism, the American people are ready to defend our democracy and chart a new way forward by electing Vice President Harris and Governor Walz.”

SHOT: JD Vance falsely claimed that Donald Trump won the 2020 election in an unearthed video.

Daily Beast: “Video Shows JD Vance Saying Trump Won the 2020 Election”

“JD Vance claimed Donald Trump won the 2020 election in an unearthed clip from 2022. The video… comes days after Vance refused to outright admit that Trump lost the race against Joe Biden during the CBS News vice presidential debate.”

CHASER: Trump got smoked in 2020 and lost by more than 7 million votes.

On the debate stage this week, Vance REFUSED to admit that Trump lost the 2020 election while whitewashing January 6 and declining to say if he would challenge this November’s election results.

NBC News: “‘Damning non-answer’: Vance refuses to acknowledge Trump lost the 2020 election”

“JD Vance refused to acknowledge that Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential election during the vice presidential debate Tuesday and downplayed the seriousness of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, which injured more than 140 law enforcement officers. He also declined to say whether he would seek to challenge the results of this year’s election.”

ABC News: “JD Vance refuses to say Trump lost in 2020, downplays events of Jan. 6”

Politico: “Vance refuses to admit that Trump lost the 2020 election”

“Vance omitted Trump’s attacks on his then-Vice President Mike Pence while a violent riot raged, as well as his months of fomenting false claims that the election was stolen and urging his supporters to ‘stop the steal.’ … Vance has previously said in interviews that he would have done in 2020 what Pence refused to do: facilitate challenges to the election at the Jan. 6 session of Congress, despite constitutional and legal restraints meant to prevent it.”

NBC News: “When asked if he would challenge this year’s election results, Ohio Sen. JD Vance avoided a direct answer, instead defending Trump’s actions on Jan. 6, 2021.”

Vance is an extreme election denier with a pattern of not committing to accepting this November’s election results, saying he would not have certified the 2020 election, and continuing to whitewash the violent January 6 insurrection.

HuffPost: “[Vance] said he would accept a Biden win only if he considered the election to be legitimate. … Vance’s comments illustrate a new tactic by Republican lawmakers, who are now placing conditions on accepting election results.”

New York Times: “J.D. Vance Says He Would Accept the Election Results, With a Caveat”

Spectrum News: “Vance again says he wouldn’t have certified 2020 election if he was vice president”

ABC News: “JD Vance says [he] wouldn’t have certified 2020 race until states submitted pro-Trump electors”

New York Times: “[Vance] has said that, unlike Vice President Mike Pence in 2020, he would have helped Mr. Trump overturn the results, by accepting Trump electors that had not been elected by voters.”

Bloomberg: “[Vance] has asserted that the 2020 presidential race was stolen from Donald Trump.”

Vance: “I think the entire post-2020 thing would have gone a lot better if there had actually been an effort to provide alternative slates of electors, and to force us to have that debate. I think it would’ve been a much better thing for the country. … [Trump] was trying to take a constitutional process to its natural conclusion.

“I think it would’ve been extraordinarily disappointing to a whole host of people that I care a lot about if Trump had just taken it [and conceded the 2020 election before January 6].”

Vance: “No real Republican with any credibility in the party is still blaming [Trump for January 6].”

The Hill: “JD Vance says he is ‘skeptical’ Pence’s life was in danger on Jan. 6”

Politico: “[Vance] downplayed the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol, when Pence was forced to evacuate the building as rioters called for his hanging.”

The post DOUBLE DOWN: JD Vance Falsely Said Donald Trump Won the 2020 Election (That He Lost By Over 7 Million Votes) appeared first on Democrats.

Key Point: “[A] review of Trump’s record by POLITICO’s E&E News and interviews with two former Trump White House officials show that the former president was flagrantly partisan at times in response to disasters and on at least three occasions hesitated to give disaster aid to areas he considered politically hostile or ordered special treatment for pro-Trump states.”

E&E News: Helene isn’t the first time Trump inserted politics into a natural disaster

By: Scott Waldman and Thomas Frank

• [A] review of Trump’s record by POLITICO’s E&E News and interviews with two former Trump White House officials show that the former president was flagrantly partisan at times in response to disasters and on at least three occasions hesitated to give disaster aid to areas he considered politically hostile or ordered special treatment for pro-Trump states.

• Mark Harvey, who was Trump’s senior director for resilience policy on the National Security Council staff, told E&E News on Wednesday that Trump initially refused to approve disaster aid for California after deadly wildfires in 2018 because of the state’s Democratic leanings.

• Trump changed his mind after Harvey pulled voting results to show him that heavily damaged Orange County, California, had more Trump supporters than the entire state of Iowa, Harvey said.

• “We went as far as looking up how many votes he got in those impacted areas … to show him these are people who voted for you,” said Harvey, who recently endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris alongside more than 100 other Republican former national security officials.

• Both Harvey and Olivia Troye, a former Trump White House homeland security adviser who backed up Harvey’s claim, say Trump is approaching Hurricane Helene with a similar mindset. They say he is politicizing a disaster that has killed more than 170 people in six states. And Troye, who has endorsed Harris for president, accused Trump of trying to divert attention from his own political liabilities on disaster responses.

• She said if Trump wins the White House again, he will view disasters through a political lens that values personal loyalty over damage considerations.

• “It’s not going to be about that American voter out there who isn’t even really paying attention to politics, and their house is gone, and the president of the United States is judging them for how they voted, and they didn’t even vote,” Troye said in an interview Wednesday.

• Troye, who played a lead role in federal disaster response, said local political leaders regularly called her office begging for help because Trump refused to sign documents approving aid. Troye said she had to repeatedly enlist former Vice President Mike Pence to apply pressure.

• Added Harvey: “There’s no empathy for the survivors. It is all about getting your photo-op, right? Disaster theater to make him look good.”
  
• In early 2019, shortly after taking office, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida met with Trump at the White House to ask a favor.

• Months earlier, while DeSantis was running for governor, Hurricane Michael had caused massive damage in the Florida Panhandle.

• DeSantis asked: Would the president order the Federal Emergency Management Agency to pay 100 percent of recovery costs instead of its customary 75 percent?

• “This is Trump country — and they need your help,” DeSantis told the president, according to the Republican governor’s autobiography, “The Courage to Be Free.”

• “They love me in the Panhandle,” Trump replied, according to DeSantis’ book, published in 2023 as he was preparing to run for president. “I must have won 90 percent of the vote out there. Huge crowds. What do they need?”

The post ICYMI: Helene Isn’t the First Time Trump Inserted Politics Into a Natural Disaster appeared first on Democrats.

In response to a former Trump official admitting “it would be impossible to do a transition without including Project 2025 people,” DNC Rapid Response Director Alex Floyd released the following statement: 

“Don’t take our word for it: Donald Trump’s own transition team knows that the Trump-Vance Project 2025 agenda is ‘radioactive,’ but a former staffer has gone on the record admitting that ‘it would be impossible to do a [Trump] transition without including Project 2025 people.’ Republicans are waking up to the reality that their toxic blueprint is driving away voters, but it’s impossible to disentangle Trump’s Republican Party from Project 2025. As we inch closer to Election Day, the American people understand the looming threat that a Trump administration would be staffed with his loyal extremists to gain unprecedented and virtually unchecked power, and that’s why voters will reject this dangerous and unpopular agenda once and for all in November.”

NEW: Trump campaign transition co-chair Howard Lutnick admitted that Donald Trump and JD Vance’s Project 2025 agenda is “radioactive” – and a former Trump official said Trump’s transition team has “already reached out” to people affiliated with Project 2025.

New York Post: “‘Heritage, because of Project 2025, is radioactive,’ Cantor Fitzgerald CEO Howard Lutnick told The Post… one former member of the Trump presidential personnel office (PPO) [claimed] ‘it would be impossible to do a transition without including Project 2025 people.’

“Lutnick’s team has ‘already reached out’ to people affiliated with Project 2025, the source went on, arguing there is no possibility of staffing a second Trump administration ‘unless he’s going outside of the conservative movement.’

“The former PPO staffer added that the Project 2025 database includes Republicans from a wide-ranging list of different groups, including Turning Point USA and ‘state legislative staff.’”

It is crystal clear that Project 2025 is “undeniably a Trump-driven operation.”

Axios: “This is undeniably a Trump-driven operation. The biggest tell: Johnny McEntee — one of Trump’s closest White House aides, and his most fervent internal loyalty enforcer — is a senior adviser to Project 2025. One of the most powerful architects is Stephen Miller, a top West Wing adviser for the Trump administration.”

Trump: “There are some things in [Project 2025] that everybody would like.”

CNN: “Trump claims not to know who is behind Project 2025. A CNN review found at least 140 people who worked for him are involved”

Politico: “Many of the authors of the blueprint are former Trump officials, and the Heritage Foundation has spent the past year-plus recruiting people to implement the plans within the administration, Scott said.”

The Week: “Many of Trump’s indicated plans for a second term fall in line with the Project 2025 outline.”

New York Times: “[Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts] told me that he views Heritage’s role today as ‘institutionalizing Trumpism.’ … The lesson of Trump’s first year in office, Roberts told me, is that ‘the Trump administration … simply got a slow start. And Heritage and our allies in Project 2025 believe that must never be repeated.’”

Washington Post: “Trump took a private flight with Project 2025 leader in 2022”

“‘[The Heritage Foundation is] going to lay the groundwork and detail plans for exactly what our movement will do,’ Trump said.”

Vance has deep ties to Project 2025 architects, has praised the extreme MAGA blueprint as containing “good ideas,” and “has made it impossible for Trump to run away from Project 2025.”

Vox: “J.D. Vance has made it impossible for Trump to run away from Project 2025”

Vance: “I’ve reviewed a lot of [Project 2025]. There are some good ideas in there.”

Vox: “Vance is on record supporting these [Project 2025] ideas. Last year, he signed a letter demanding that the Justice Department prosecute physicians and pharmacists ‘who break the Federal mail-order abortion laws.’ In 2022, he said he was ‘sympathetic’ to the idea that the federal government should stop efforts to help women traveling out of their states to get abortions. … The second controversial area where Vance is sympatico with Project 2025 is centralizing presidential power over the executive branch.”

New York Times: “Vance Championed 2017 Report on Families From Architects of Project 2025”

Axios: “J.D. Vance wrote foreword of upcoming book from Project 2025 architect”

New Republic: “Project 2025 Leader Is Overjoyed by Trump’s Vice Presidential Pick”

Vox: “Kevin Roberts, the president of the right-wing Heritage Foundation and the driving force behind Project 2025, told Ward that ‘[Vance] is absolutely going to be one of the leaders — if not the leader — of our movement.’”

Nick Corasaniti, New York Times: “[Roberts] reacted to the news [of Vance’s VP selection] ‘with a broad smile on my face’ and said that ‘privately, we were really rooting for him.’”

Politico: “[Project 2025 architect Russell Vought] told POLITICO Magazine that he is in ‘regular contact’ with Vance’s Hill office and that ‘we probably have one of the closest relationships with [Vance’s] office that we do with any Hill office.’”

Trump and Vance have repeatedly echoed extreme Project 2025 plans, which include banning abortion nationwide with or without Congress, cruel mass deportation schemes, mass firings of civil servants, and tax giveaways for billionaires and corporations.

Roll Call: “‘Dumping ground’: Trump echoes conservative ‘Project 2025’”

The Atlantic: “At the top of Vought and Dans’s must-do list for the next president: reissuing an executive order that Trump signed during his final months in office—and which President Joe Biden promptly reversed—that would allow the government to remove civil-service protections from as many as 50,000 federal jobs. The move would create a new class of employees known as Schedule F whom the president could fire at will.”

Associated Press: “Trump-era conservatives want to gut the ‘administrative state’ from within, by ousting federal employees they believe are standing in the way of the president’s agenda and replacing them with like-minded officials more eager to fulfill a new executive’s approach to governing.”

Vance: “I think that what Trump should do, like if I was giving him one piece of advice, is fire every single civil servant… replace them with our people.”

Rolling Stone: “Inside the MAGA Plan to Attack Birth Control, Surveil Women and Ban the Abortion Pill”

“GOP operatives have already crafted an expansive blueprint, 887 pages long, laying out in painstaking detail how they intend to govern, including plans to leverage virtually every arm, tool and agency of the federal government to attack abortion access.”

Rolling Stone: “Trump Wants to Ban Abortion Nationwide: Report”

Washington Post: “Vance urged DOJ to enforce Comstock Act, crack down on abortion pills”

CNN: “JD Vance said in 2022 he ‘would like abortion to be illegal nationally’”

CNN: “Project 2025’s proposals for reforming the country’s immigration laws appear heavily influenced by those who helped execute Trump’s early enforcement measures. Former acting US Customs and Border Protection chief Mark Morgan and former Immigration and Customs Enforcement chief Tom Homan – the faces of Trump’s polarizing policies – contributed to the project, as did Kathy Nuebel Kovarik, one of the policy advisers pushing to end certain immigrant protections behind the scenes.”

New York Times: “Sweeping Raids, Giant Camps and Mass Deportations: Inside Trump’s 2025 Immigration Plans”

Education Week: “Project 2025, a 900-page conservative policy agenda that proposes eliminating the U.S. Department of Education, has become a dominating force in the 2024 election campaign.” 

Trump Campaign: “President Trump pledges to close the Department of Education in Washington, D.C. and to send all education work and needs back to the States.”

Project 2025: “The corporate income tax rate should be reduced to 18 percent.”

CBS News: “Millions of low- and middle-class households would likely face significantly higher taxes under the Project 2025’s proposals.”

Washington Post: “Trump and his advisers have discussed deeper cuts to both individual and corporate tax rates that would build on his controversial 2017 tax law. … Trump’s advisers, though, have discussed proposals to make deeper cuts to the overall corporate tax rate, potentially to as low as 15 percent, or to use the revenue from the proposed tariffs to pay a dividend to U.S. households. Further cutting corporate taxes … would primarily benefit large firms.”

REALITY CHECK: The Trump-Vance Project 2025 agenda is extreme and unpopular – Americans are ready to reject this dangerous and out-of-touch MAGA playbook in November.

NBC News: “Poll: Project 2025 is broadly known and severely unpopular with voters”

Newsweek: “Project 2025’s Unpopularity Continues to Grow: New Poll”

Miami Herald: “As Americans learn more about Project 2025, they become more opposed, poll finds”

NBC News: “On Project 2025… a whopping 57% of voters have a negative view of it, versus just 4% who see it in a positive light.”

Navigator Research: “Project 2025 Has Become Significantly More Unfavorable Since Trump Attempted to Distance Himself From the Plan”

“A plurality of Americans believe Project 2025 accurately represents what Trump stands for.”

Navigator Research: “Americans oppose all the key elements in Project 2025, with the greatest concerns around health care, worker’s rights, and dismantling federal programs. Over four in five Americans oppose an array of policies proposed in Project 2025 such as ‘allowing employers to stop paying hourly workers overtime’ … Additionally, four in five oppose ‘allowing the government to monitor people’s pregnancies to potentially prosecute them if they miscarry.’

“Americans’ overall opposition to Project 2025 increases after reading about its specific policy goals. … Three in five Americans say Project 2025 would benefit the wealthiest Americans, CEOs, and corporations.”

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