WATCH: How Project 2025 Could Dismantle American Democracy

0:00 | you’ve probably been hearing a lot in

0:01 | the news recently about the Heritage

0:03 | foundation’s dangerous project 2025 but

0:06 | what exactly is it what will it mean for

0:08 | you the voters what impact will it have

0:10 | on American democracy voting and

0:12 | elections I’m Sophie Feldman and I’m

0:14 | joined here today with democracy docket

0:16 | senior staff writer Matt Cohen who has

0:18 | reported extensively about this farri

0:21 | agenda Matt thanks for joining us um can

0:23 | you give us just a brief rundown first

0:25 | about what project 2025 actually is for

0:28 | those in our audience who might not be

0:30 | aware yet sure thanks for having me

0:31 | Sophie um so basically uh project 2025

0:36 | is uh this this massive sprawling um

0:40 | document from the Heritage Foundation

0:43 | that essentially is a blueprint for how

0:46 | to remake the federal government uh when

0:48 | the next conservative Administration

0:50 | takes over uh into a sort of Christian

0:54 | nationalist authoritarian uh regime um

0:59 | the actual document it it’s over it’s

1:01 | almost a thousand pages long and it kind

1:03 | of reads like a conservative Manifesto

1:06 | and it basically details um how every

1:09 | Department the changes that it can make

1:12 | um to align with uh a a um government

1:17 | that is essentially dictated by

1:18 | Christian nationalist ideals numerous

1:20 | civil rights organizations voters media

1:24 | Outlets just people on the streets are

1:26 | reading up about project 2025 and are

1:28 | ringing serious alarm alarm bells on it

1:30 | among other radical proposed changes

1:32 | that are laid out in Project 2025 they

1:35 | want to ban abortion Nationwide

1:37 | eradicate civil protections for millions

1:40 | of Americans and also completely

1:42 | eliminate the Department of Education

1:44 | but there’s also numerous chapters about

1:46 | voting and elections and stuff that

1:48 | would just drastically change American

1:50 | democracy one of the more concerning

1:52 | chapters that you laid out in one of

1:53 | your pieces that you wrote about project

1:55 | 2025 on Democracy docket is about

1:57 | serious reforms to the United States

2:00 | Department of Justice can you talk about

2:02 | who authored that chapter first of all

2:04 | and what these policies changes are yeah

2:07 | um the the chapter on the doj was

2:10 | written by Jean Hamilton who is someone

2:14 | that um you know might ring some

2:17 | familiarity for people um he’s a

2:20 | prominent conservative lawyer who

2:22 | actually served uh in the doj and uh

2:25 | Department of Homeland Security under

2:27 | Trump um and the reason people might

2:30 | recognize that name is because he is

2:33 | kind widely considered known as the the

2:35 | Chief Architect of ending um Trump’s

2:38 | DACA program um uh and that is kind of

2:43 | his like rise to prominence within um

2:46 | Maga World um which which by the way let

2:49 | me jump in here this is one of numerous

2:51 | people who are architects of this

2:53 | dangerous project 2025 who worked or are

2:55 | affiliated with Donald Trump who we will

2:58 | talk about this more later Matt um but

3:00 | Trump has now tried to distance himself

3:02 | from Project 2025 saying that he knows

3:05 | nothing about this agenda and he doesn’t

3:07 | know any of the people who are part of

3:08 | it um but we’ll debunk that obvious myth

3:11 | later in this video yeah um exactly uh

3:15 | but you know the the thing about uh this

3:18 | chapter about the doj that Jean authored

3:22 | Jean Hamilton authored um it essentially

3:25 | wants to strip doj of its independent

3:28 | Authority um basically the doj uh is is

3:34 | uh tasked at having independent

3:36 | authority to um investigate all matters

3:40 | of um you know civil rights violations

3:43 | and other uh federal law violations and

3:46 | it’s widely seen as not being the arm of

3:50 | a president’s agenda but having its own

3:52 | agenda um of upholding the Constitution

3:55 | and law and the chapter on the doj also

3:59 | uh you know it recommends completely

4:01 | stripping the doj of its civil rights

4:03 | division which is a major function of

4:05 | the agency um it it’s responsible for

4:09 | enforcing critical voting right laws

4:11 | like the V the national voter

4:13 | registration act um it also the Hamilton

4:18 | also um writes extensively about how to

4:21 | reform the FBI uh and spends a lot of

4:24 | words writing about um basically

4:28 | stripping of its Duty to um you know I I

4:32 | think the actual quote is stripping it

4:34 | from engaging in activities related to

4:37 | combating the spread of so-called

4:39 | misinformation and disinformation by

4:42 | Americans who are not tied to any

4:43 | plausible criminal activity so you know

4:47 | uh basically basically telling it to

4:50 | stand down from investigating

4:52 | misinformation um that seeds into

4:55 | elections and can really seriously harm

4:58 | democracy in that way

5:00 | and this is especially even more deeply

5:03 | concerning as the threats against

5:04 | election workers across the country are

5:06 | on the rise as a result of this type of

5:09 | election Miss and

5:10 | disinformation yeah exactly and um you

5:14 | know it’s

5:15 | it’s the more you read into it the the

5:18 | more alarming uh it it really is

5:21 | especially where we are um in in this

5:24 | election season how kind of

5:26 | disinformation and misinformation is

5:28 | really um

5:30 | running rampant on the topic of election

5:33 | threats there’s also a part of project

5:35 | 2025 that talks about dismantling a key

5:38 | agency in the Department of Homeland

5:41 | Security can you talk about that a

5:43 | little bit Yeah so uh this is um this is

5:48 | in a chapter about DHS that was written

5:50 | by um Ken Cinelli um who uh might be

5:54 | familiar to some um people out there he

5:58 | was a a key figure year in the Trump

6:01 | Administration working within the DHS um

6:04 | but he authored this uh this um proposal

6:07 | in the DHS chapter to uh completely kind

6:11 | of get rid of the cyber security and

6:13 | infrastructure agency known as siza uh

6:16 | and move it to the Department of

6:18 | Transportation um and that is really

6:21 | alarming

6:23 | for a lot of reasons but Chief among

6:25 | them is that siza is is one of the

6:28 | primary agencies

6:30 | that is is basically protecting federal

6:32 | and state elections from um cyber

6:34 | security threats in elections uh and

6:38 | that looks like foreign back

6:39 | disinformation AI threats things like

6:41 | that um it’s hard to understate how

6:45 | critical of a role siza plays in um

6:50 | helping keep elections safe um in the

6:54 | past couple elections uh they they they

6:58 | provide guidance and funding grants to

6:59 | help kind of local election offices um

7:02 | fight different cyber threats and

7:04 | disinformation campaigns and elections

7:06 | and their efforts have been praised by

7:08 | secretaries of State across the

7:10 | political Spectrum um that uh basically

7:15 | um you know how essential it is in

7:18 | helping um keep elections safe so to

7:22 | move that to the Department of

7:23 | Transportation which has really no

7:27 | function of countering cyber security

7:29 | threats

7:31 | is really alarming so the architects of

7:34 | project 2025 want to move this crucial

7:37 | cyber security threats agency to the

7:41 | Department of Transportation um I read

7:43 | in your piece on Democracy doet that you

7:45 | talked to several different experts

7:47 | about this specific section what were

7:49 | those experts saying about this yeah the

7:53 | I think the one person that really

7:54 | summed up that proposal um perfectly is

7:58 | adav noi who’s the executive director of

8:00 | The Campaign Legal Center a nonpartisan

8:03 | uh voting rights advocacy organization

8:06 | um and when I brought it up to him he

8:08 | just told me that the proposal was

8:10 | absolutely Bonkers um and he expanded on

8:14 | that and said that you know it would it

8:16 | would really have devastating uh impact

8:19 | on Election security um you know uh siza

8:23 | is really like the bread and butter of

8:24 | DHS and it’s it’s it’s really a key

8:28 | Agency for protecting the nation from

8:31 | different um cyber threats which really

8:34 | come out uh in elections mostly so um

8:38 | you know moving that to the Department

8:40 | of Transportation kind of stripping it

8:43 | of its role in elections would really be

8:45 | devastating another concerning part of

8:47 | project 2025 that has been gaining a lot

8:50 | of traction in the media is the proposal

8:53 | to add a citizenship question on the US

8:56 | Census we know that was one of the big

8:58 | defeats um with the Trump Administration

9:00 | as the Supreme Court blocked the Trump

9:02 | Administration from adding this

9:04 | citizenship question to the US Census in

9:06 | 2020 can you talk about what exactly

9:09 | project 2025 wants to do and why voters

9:11 | should be concerned about

9:14 | this yeah it’s uh kind of funny because

9:17 | for a thousand-page document that really

9:19 | gets into detail about a lot of things

9:22 | um it really doesn’t get into detail

9:24 | about uh the citizenship question it

9:27 | just says any successful conservative

9:30 | Administration must include a

9:32 | citizenship question in the census um

9:36 | and basically uh this is a longtime kind

9:40 | of right-wing goal um uh for for the

9:46 | Republicans to get a citizenship

9:48 | question on the census which it hasn’t

9:51 | had since um

9:53 | 1950 um and as you mentioned the Trump

9:56 | Administration um tried and failed um

9:59 | scotus stepped in and said basically

10:01 | it’s unconstitutional to do that um but

10:05 | you know such a uh simple ask has

10:10 | such like dangerous repercussions um

10:14 | basically you know the census is about

10:16 | uh counting the whole of the US

10:18 | population and not just American

10:20 | citizens and what that data is used for

10:23 | is um you know getting accurate uh

10:27 | population counts in communities

10:29 | um then translates to um representation

10:33 | in Congress uh different um funding for

10:37 | communities and and resources for

10:39 | communities and if there’s not an

10:41 | accurate um count for those areas it it

10:44 | would really uh it would really affect

10:47 | the kinds of resources that go to a lot

10:50 | of immigrant communities um throughout

10:53 | the United States um you know they they

10:56 | won’t have that that could lead to uh

10:58 | less representation in Congress um you

11:01 | know a a depressed response rate really

11:04 | just has devastating impacts and you

11:06 | know the the other thing is is is a is a

11:10 | cultural concern that a lot of people I

11:12 | I talk to um brought up to me which is

11:15 | it it will just continue to inflame kind

11:18 | of anti-immigrant sentiment which is a a

11:21 | proponent of Trump’s campaign and and

11:24 | the Republican base is really stoking

11:27 | fears about um immigration and creating

11:30 | a real U really terrible anti-immigrant

11:33 | um bias in this country we’ve been

11:36 | talking about a lot of project 202’s

11:38 | dangerous proposals um that are so

11:41 | radical that even Trump himself has

11:43 | tried to distance himself from Project

11:46 | 2025 he claimed on Truth social that he

11:49 | knows nothing about project 2025 nor has

11:52 | any idea who’s behind it what is your

11:55 | response to that

11:57 | Matt um I mean that’s just one of the

12:00 | biggest lies that he could have that he

12:03 | he’s I mean Trump is known for lying but

12:05 | that is just one of the most blatant

12:07 | lies that he’s told recently um you know

12:10 | the Heritage Foundation is so kind of

12:14 | intertwined with Trump’s um rise uh you

12:18 | know he he is very close with their

12:21 | president um at a at a 2022 event he um

12:26 | praised the Heritage Foundation calling

12:28 | it um you know a great group and and

12:30 | said that they’re you know laying the

12:32 | groundwork and detail plans for exactly

12:35 | what um the Maga movement will do so uh

12:39 | you know I find it hard to believe that

12:41 | he has no knowledge of this uh

12:44 | especially considering how many of his

12:46 | syn ofits are behind it CNN reported

12:50 | that there there’s at least 140 former

12:53 | um members of Trump’s Administration who

12:56 | were in some way involved in it whether

12:58 | that’s you know

13:00 | uh uh being listed in the credits of it

13:03 | um being uh tied to an organization who

13:06 | had some hand in it or authoring um

13:10 | chapters of it itself like uh Peter

13:12 | Navaro and Ken Cinelli and Jean Hamilton

13:16 | um there’s just really no way that he

13:18 | has no idea about it uh that just seems

13:21 | like complete bu let’s make it clear to

13:23 | our audience while it is true that

13:25 | Donald Trump’s actual campaign is not

13:28 | the one who was behind project

13:30 | 2025 numerous of his staff previous

13:33 | staff a lot of the people that he was

13:35 | connected to are behind this dangerous

13:38 | agenda to install like you said Matt

13:40 | essentially a Christian nationalist

13:43 | portrait of America does any part of you

13:45 | what all think that Trump will not

13:47 | implement or use project 2025 as a guide

13:50 | of what to do if he takes office again

13:53 | next year look I mean the likelihood

13:57 | that every detail project 2025 would

14:00 | come to fruition is is is pretty low uh

14:04 | there’s so much in there and it’s you

14:06 | know

14:07 | frankly I don’t know that legally um he

14:11 | or any president could do all of that

14:15 | but the fact of the matter is that if

14:17 | even 10% of what’s in Project 2025 comes

14:20 | to fruition that will have devastating

14:23 | impacts for millions of Americans um it

14:26 | there there’s not a idea proposal or

14:29 | proposal in there that’s not going to

14:32 | affect uh millions of people and so even

14:36 | if there is just a minimal amount of

14:40 | what’s in there that comes to effect uh

14:43 | that is extremely concerning so I’m sure

14:46 | that is very scary for a lot of our

14:49 | audience to hear um but the good news is

14:52 | that we will keep reporting about all of

14:54 | these things so that everyone will stay

14:57 | informed about these threats to our

14:59 | democracy um especially you Matt um we

15:02 | have some exciting news that we’ll talk

15:03 | about right here I hear that you are

15:06 | launching a new newsletter at democracy

15:08 | docket to talk specifically about what

15:11 | the Republicans and the right-wing is up

15:13 | to um with their threats to elections

15:15 | and American democracy it’s called eye

15:17 | on the right can you talk a little bit

15:19 | about that newsletter what people can

15:21 | expect how people can sign up when it

15:23 | launches yeah thanks Sophie I’m really

15:25 | excited about it um it launches on July

15:28 | 2 3D and it basically is uh going to go

15:32 | deep on the reporting that I do for

15:35 | democracy docket already um all of the

15:38 | kind of right-wing people groups and

15:39 | trends that I’m digging into that all

15:42 | lives rentree in my brain and uh we

15:45 | thought it would be a good idea to kind

15:47 | of do this newsletter to um provide a

15:51 | little more analysis on like what all of

15:54 | these uh right-wing groups and Trends

15:57 | mean in the political world so

15:59 | um expect to hear a little bit more

16:02 | about groups like America First legal or

16:05 | the United Sovereign Americans um and

16:07 | just kind of uh me talking a little bit

16:11 | more about um what that all means uh

16:15 | especially in this election season and

16:17 | Beyond and kind of um what people should

16:20 | be keeping their eye on who they should

16:22 | be concerned about um things like that

16:25 | um it’s launching July 23rd as I said

16:28 | and you could sign up for it on

16:29 | Democracy doets website um and yeah I’m

16:32 | ex super excited about it yeah we’re

16:34 | really excited for this to be launching

16:35 | I think it’s something that is really

16:37 | important um for our viewers but also

16:40 | just the public to be aware about all of

16:42 | these threats and keep an eye on the

16:44 | right as we say as the newsletter title

16:47 | suggests um keeping up with what they’re

16:50 | doing is something that is really

16:51 | important um so like matet you can sign

16:53 | up at democracy do.com or you can just

16:56 | click the link right here on the screen

16:57 | or in the description of this video the

16:59 | first edition launches tomorrow July

17:01 | 23rd so sign up right now to receive

17:03 | that straight to your inbox tomorrow

17:05 | morning and if you want to support our

17:07 | work consider becoming a democracy

17:09 | docket member you can upgrade right now

17:12 | um for just $10 a month or $120 a year

17:15 | you get exclusive new newsletters um

17:18 | access to Live Events some more

17:20 | newsletters from Mark um Etc and it

17:23 | really helps support our work so you can

17:24 | click the link again right here or in

17:26 | the description of this video all right

17:28 | Matt thank you so much for joining us on

17:29 | the Democracy docket YouTube

17:31 | channel Sophie thank you so much for

17:33 | having me this is super fun

17:36 | [Music]

WATCH: How Project 2025 Could Dismantle American Democracy

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How Project 2025 Could Dismantle American Democracy Transcript

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