Video Summary
An undercover video reveals Russell Vought, Trump’s former budget director, discussing Project 2025’s radical agenda for Trump’s second term. Despite Trump’s public disavowal, Vought’s plans include eliminating the Department of Education, massive civil servant firings, and restricting abortion rights. The project, secretly detailed in 350 documents, aims for a centralized government under Trump’s control. The investigation by the Center for Climate Reporting highlights the clandestine nature of these plans and their potential impact on American democracy.
Project 2025 Co-Author Lays Out “Radical Agenda” for Next Trump Term in Undercover Video Transcript
- 0:00 | We Begin Today’s Show with a new
- 0:01 | undercover video that shows the
- 0:04 | co-author of project 2025 bragging about
- 0:08 | his ties to Republican presidential
- 0:10 | candidate Donald Trump even As Trump is
- 0:13 | trying to distance himself from the
- 0:15 | right-wing blueprint for his potential
- 0:17 | second term the video features Russell
- 0:21 | vote who is director of the Trump White
- 0:23 | House Office of Management and budget it
- 0:25 | shows vote meeting in a five-star
- 0:28 | Washington DC Hotel
- 0:30 | with two men he thought were relatives
- 0:33 | of a wealthy conservative donor but vote
- 0:36 | was actually talking to two undercover
- 0:39 | reporters with the center for climate
- 0:41 | reporting an independent British news
- 0:43 | outlet they were secretly recording him
- 0:46 | in a minute one of those reporters will
- 0:48 | join us but first this is the video
- 0:52 | report accompanying their new
- 0:55 | investigation it’s called undercover in
- 0:58 | Project 2025 the the secretive second
- 1:01 | phase and the radical policies for
- 1:03 | rollout on day
- 1:07 | one two undercover reporters posing as
- 1:10 | donors are about to meet one of the key
- 1:12 | architects of project 2025 the radical
- 1:15 | plan for Trump second term in a hotel
- 1:17 | suite rigged with hidden cameras nice to
- 1:19 | meet you would you like uh coffee or
- 1:22 | something I’d love coffee
- 1:24 | yeah meet Russ vot Russell vote the
- 1:27 | former director of The Office of
- 1:29 | Management and budget he’s been called
- 1:31 | the most dangerous magga die hard you’ve
- 1:33 | never heard of I am opposed to the
- 1:35 | Department of Education because I think
- 1:37 | it’s the department of critical race
- 1:38 | Theory the Russ vote were comrades in
- 1:40 | arms formerly a Cabinet member and chief
- 1:43 | lieutenant in the first Trump admin I
- 1:45 | want to thank Russ for doing an
- 1:46 | incredible job he now runs a group
- 1:48 | called Center for renewing America an
- 1:50 | organization that I helped turn into the
- 1:53 | Death Star that is accomplishing all the
- 1:56 | debates that you are reading about I
- 1:57 | think you have to rehabilitate Christian
- 1:59 | nationalism you have the largest
- 2:00 | deportation in history block funding for
- 2:03 | Planned Parenthood I I want to be the
- 2:05 | person that crushes the Deep State vote
- 2:08 | is one of the key authors of the
- 2:09 | blueprint for a second Trump
- 2:11 | Administration project 2025 it’s an
- 2:13 | ambitious 920 page blueprint like
- 2:16 | eliminating the Department of Education
- 2:18 | the mass firings of civil servants
- 2:20 | Banning access to the abortion pill and
- 2:22 | further restricting abortion rights in
- 2:25 | recent weeks the plans have become so
- 2:27 | controversial that Trump has been forced
- 2:29 | to distance self they’re sort of the
- 2:31 | opposite of the radical left okay you
- 2:33 | have the radical left and you have the
- 2:34 | radical right and they come up with this
- 2:37 | I don’t know what the hell it is it’s
- 2:38 | project 25 are you ready I know nothing
- 2:41 | about project 25 I haven’t seen the
- 2:44 | document I don’t intend to really see
- 2:46 | the document but behind closed doors
- 2:48 | vote tells us not to take Trump’s
- 2:50 | disavow seriously I I expected you hear
- 2:53 | 10 more times from the rally the
- 2:54 | president you know distancing himself
- 2:57 | from the left’s Boogyman of project 2025
- 3:00 | yeah um and you’re not worried about
- 3:02 | that I’m not worried about it okay he’s
- 3:04 | running against the brand he is not
- 3:07 | running against any people okay uh he is
- 3:09 | not running against uh any institutions
- 3:12 | it’s interesting he’s in fact not even
- 3:14 | opposing himself to a particular policy
- 3:17 | he’s been at our organization he’s
- 3:19 | raised money for our organization he’s
- 3:21 | blessed it from the you know when we’re
- 3:22 | walking into our last day in office and
- 3:24 | told him what I was going to do so he’s
- 3:27 | very supportive of what we do
- 3:31 | our investigation into project 2025
- 3:33 | began two weeks before the meeting with
- 3:35 | vote at a conference for religious
- 3:38 | nationalists in DC the truth is
- 3:40 | Christian nationalism is not a threat to
- 3:43 | American democracy Christian nationalism
- 3:45 | founded American democracy journalists
- 3:48 | from the center for climate reporting
- 3:49 | have come posing as potential donors
- 3:52 | looking to meet those involved in
- 3:53 | Project
- 3:55 | 2025 they’re not hard to find the
- 3:58 | Heritage Foundation the group running
- 4:00 | the project are here so is votes think
- 4:03 | tank we make the acquaintance of M
- 4:05 | metrof an author on Project 2025 and a
- 4:08 | close Aid to vote he tells us that vote
- 4:11 | is running the secretive second phase of
- 4:14 | project 2025 the second phase after the
- 4:17 | book came out was to break down like
- 4:19 | actual sort of policy packets and
- 4:24 | executive orders
- 4:26 | and um agenda items and things like that
- 4:29 | that’s it’s been supervised
- 4:31 | largely the first phase of project 2025
- 4:34 | was a 922 page policy book published
- 4:37 | openly the second phase is a
- 4:40 | comprehensive concrete transition plan
- 4:42 | for each Federal agency these much more
- 4:45 | detailed plans are confidential yeah CU
- 4:49 | obviously you wanted little of it to be
- 4:51 | Foy if you’re familiar with the Foya
- 4:53 | process as possible freed Freedom of
- 4:55 | Information Act yeah the Freedom of
- 4:58 | Information Act allows the public to
- 4:59 | request government Communications but
- 5:02 | metrof reveals they plan to avoid these
- 5:04 | rules yeah the goal is you know
- 5:07 | familiarize all the transition team
- 5:08 | people with these plans yeah but you
- 5:11 | don’t actually like send them to their
- 5:14 | work emails CU
- 5:16 | right you know you could just give the
- 5:19 | handbooks to everyone be like this is
- 5:20 | the game plan for the
- 5:21 | admin if the Press knows that that’s
- 5:23 | what you’re doing that they’re going to
- 5:24 | immediately just say like I request all
- 5:27 | of your emails from Heritage okay you
- 5:29 | know
- 5:31 | you I see so we’ll see interesting metal
- 5:35 | offers to set up a meeting with his boss
- 5:37 | Russ vot you could like put me in touch
- 5:39 | with somebody who looks after his diary
- 5:41 | or whatever yes I could put you in touch
- 5:42 | with his schedule
- 5:44 | amazing great yeah so just tell me when
- 5:46 | to do that we want to meet the man
- 5:48 | writing the game plan for Trump’s second
- 5:50 | Administration vote believes that in his
- 5:52 | first term Trump’s agenda was frustrated
- 5:54 | by what he calls the Deep state so vote
- 5:57 | is planning a radical centralization of
- 5:59 | government power under the president
- 6:02 | firing civil servants and ending the
- 6:03 | independence of agencies like the FBI
- 6:06 | and
- 6:07 | doj 80% of my time is working on the
- 6:11 | plans of what’s necessary to take
- 6:13 | control of these
- 6:15 | bureaucracies um and we are working
- 6:17 | doggedly on that U whether it’s uh
- 6:21 | destroying their agency’s notion of
- 6:23 | Independence they are independent from
- 6:25 | the president vote has also been
- 6:27 | preparing documents based on Fringe
- 6:29 | legal theories arguing the president has
- 6:31 | the power to use the military against
- 6:33 | protesters you George Floyd obviously
- 6:36 | was not about race it was about uh
- 6:39 | destabilizing the Trump Administration
- 6:42 | uh we put out for instance a 50-page
- 6:45 | paper designed for lawyers to know that
- 6:48 | the president has you know the ability
- 6:51 | both along the border uh and elsewhere
- 6:54 | to maintain Law and Order with the
- 6:56 | military and and that’s something that
- 6:59 | um you know it’s going to be important
- 7:00 | for for him to remember and his lawyers
- 7:03 | to affirm but we we’ve given them the
- 7:05 | case for that with loyalists installed
- 7:07 | in key government agencies and armed
- 7:09 | with his Playbook vote believes a
- 7:11 | radical Christian nationalist agenda can
- 7:13 | be realized under a second Trump
- 7:15 | presidency for example on abortion so I
- 7:19 | think the president’s actually come up
- 7:20 | with a a strategy that works so long as
- 7:24 | you are giving people like me in the
- 7:27 | government the ability to block funding
- 7:29 | for Planned Parenthood block funding for
- 7:32 | fetal tissue research but what I’ve told
- 7:34 | people is he had the most Pro lifee
- 7:38 | record ever I’ve never seen him take it
- 7:42 | to stand in the way of a pro-life
- 7:44 | initiative that actually was real
- 7:47 | politically and with momentum and for
- 7:49 | vote Trump’s pick for vice president
- 7:51 | shows he’s serious about pushing this
- 7:53 | ideological agenda when in power so I am
- 7:56 | very happy with the JD pick I think it’s
- 7:58 | transformative for sure um and he’s you
- 8:01 | know he think of him as a member version
- 8:03 | of what we do yeah so there’s no Think
- 8:07 | Tank no policy Organization no battle
- 8:09 | plan
- 8:10 | Creator other than us for the worldview
- 8:13 | that I think Donald Trump has and that
- 8:16 | uh JD has but as public backlash against
- 8:19 | these plans builds the Trump campaign
- 8:21 | has been scrambling to distance
- 8:23 | themselves from Project 202’s authors
- 8:26 | it’s complete and utter for any
- 8:28 | reporter to right that this is the way
- 8:31 | it is the president’s made it clear
- 8:32 | these people do not speak for him they
- 8:35 | do not speak for the campaign but vote
- 8:36 | tells us that behind the scenes things
- 8:38 | are much friendlier the Trump campaign
- 8:41 | recently picked him to write the
- 8:42 | Republicans policy platform making him
- 8:45 | essentially project 202’s man on the
- 8:48 | inside I think the best example is like
- 8:51 | campaign selected me to be the platform
- 8:54 | uh because of their their views on my
- 8:57 | policy ideas and they’re not running
- 8:59 | from all of the negativity that I get
- 9:00 | from the Press I see so they haven’t
- 9:02 | been spooked on you as a person you
- 9:04 | don’t think no I mean I no I I don’t
- 9:07 | think I’m going to be their transition
- 9:09 | pick because then they have all these
- 9:11 | kinds of stories but no the relationship
- 9:14 | is great the head of the Trump
- 9:15 | transition team has not yet been
- 9:17 | appointed but vote says that no matter
- 9:19 | who is named he’ll be able to hand over
- 9:21 | his project 2025 battle plans directly
- 9:24 | if it’s someone like Steven Miller or
- 9:26 | Bob lighthiser then all the stuff gets
- 9:29 | uh pluged right in if it’s not we’ll
- 9:32 | figure it out okay but but all of it
- 9:36 | will be designed for a theory of the
- 9:37 | case that president if if if a battle
- 9:40 | plan is out there that will do what he
- 9:42 | wants there are people like me that have
- 9:45 | his trust that we’ll we’ll be able to
- 9:47 | get it to him uh in whatever position
- 9:50 | we’re at or I could be at Center for new
- 9:52 | America but the relationships will be
- 9:54 | there uh the trust level will be there
- 9:56 | project 202’s radical Phase 1 policy
- 9:59 | book turned into a PR disaster the
- 10:01 | director of project 2025 has stepped
- 10:04 | down after facing criticism from both
- 10:06 | Democrats and the Trump campaign but
- 10:08 | votes Phase 2 battle plans top secret
- 10:11 | and handed directly to the transition
- 10:12 | team remain unburdened by the brand and
- 10:16 | are you going to like Rebrand that
- 10:18 | second phase at for what I do yeah the
- 10:21 | brand is not important and you’re not
- 10:22 | worried that if it has project 2025 on
- 10:25 | he’s going to go
- 10:26 | like and you’re not going to publish
- 10:28 | those
- 10:29 | no no they go straight to yeah they very
- 10:33 | very close hold yeah okay brilliant
- 10:35 | brilliant it’s been an education
- 10:37 | appreciate it thank you for time thank
- 10:39 | you so much any time thank you very much
- 10:42 | you can show
- 10:46 | us that’s the full video report that
- 10:50 | accompanies a major new investigation by
- 10:52 | the center for climate reporting it’s
- 10:55 | called undercover in Project 2025 the
- 10:58 | secretive second phase and the radical
- 11:01 | policies set for roll out on day one for
- 11:04 | more we’re joined by Lawrence Carter
- 11:06 | founder and director of the center for
- 11:08 | climate reporting he is joining us via
- 11:11 | Audio Only from the West Midlands in the
- 11:14 | UK because he’s an undercover journalist
- 11:16 | and needs to remain anonymous for his
- 11:18 | work welcome to democracy Now Lawrence
- 11:21 | if you can start off by talking about
- 11:23 | the significance of what you found um
- 11:26 | and more on who vote is in their
- 11:28 | response
- 11:30 | hi a um thanks for having me um yeah I
- 11:34 | think for us the investigation really
- 11:37 | crystallized around the time that um you
- 11:39 | started to see these big disavows from
- 11:42 | the Trump campaign from Project 2025
- 11:46 | previously it it kind of seemed like an
- 11:48 | unspoken kind of um collaboration almost
- 11:51 | where Trump went to the Heritage
- 11:53 | Foundation um in the month that they
- 11:55 | launched project 2025 and seemed to sort
- 11:58 | of give it his Blessing
- 11:59 | um obviously then it became this huge
- 12:01 | political issue um very unpopular
- 12:04 | proposals um in the big policy book that
- 12:06 | they produced and recently you’ve seen
- 12:09 | Trump’s campaign managers really as you
- 12:11 | saw in the film really aggressively
- 12:13 | attacking project
- 12:14 | 20225 but our kind of hypothesis was
- 12:18 | that that was kind of window dressing
- 12:20 | and actually the relationships are there
- 12:22 | and so we went undercover and you know
- 12:25 | that that that is was borne out by our
- 12:27 | investigation that there’s this
- 12:29 | secretive second phase of project
- 12:31 | 2025 um rosbo is overseeing a pipeline
- 12:35 | of
- 12:36 | 350 detailed blueprints that’s executive
- 12:39 | orders secretarial memos um all designed
- 12:42 | to ensure that this kind of radical um
- 12:45 | agenda that the conservative movement
- 12:47 | has in the US can be implemented from
- 12:50 | day one they want to make sure that the
- 12:52 | mistakes from the first um Trump
- 12:54 | Administration as they see them where
- 12:56 | Not much got done um are avoided this
- 12:59 | time round and they’re really able to S
- 13:01 | of upend the way in which um the United
- 13:04 | States is governed um there are some
- 13:06 | like specifically shocking findings of
- 13:09 | the investigation in terms of um the
- 13:12 | policy proposals that they put forward
- 13:13 | and these are kind of things that um are
- 13:16 | in the book but which when you kind of
- 13:18 | speak about them in detail become kind
- 13:20 | of all the more um important from the
- 13:22 | kind of public interest perspective um
- 13:24 | and that’s um largely around the way in
- 13:27 | which he talked about ma the mass
- 13:29 | deportations that they want to carry out
- 13:31 | um and which is actually in the GOP
- 13:33 | platform which um the Trump campaign
- 13:36 | actually asked um Mr V to oversee so um
- 13:41 | the largest deportation in history as he
- 13:43 | calls it um has kind of come from the
- 13:45 | conservative movement via project
- 13:47 | 2025 is also a key campaign promise of
- 13:50 | the Trump campaign um and and he talked
- 13:53 | about the deportations you know these
- 13:56 | Mass like millions of people being
- 13:57 | deported as a way in which to achieve a
- 14:00 | goal which is to end multiculturalism in
- 14:03 | the United States um we asked him you
- 14:06 | know what what’s going to happen when
- 14:10 | there’s protests against that and he
- 14:12 | said well we’ve been preparing kind of
- 14:14 | legal Arguments for bringing in the
- 14:16 | military to um quell protest by US
- 14:18 | citizens so um those are those are a few
- 14:22 | of the findings that we thought were
- 14:24 | most important but obviously um overall
- 14:28 | you’ve got this kind of quite radical
- 14:29 | agenda um and then you’ve got a man
- 14:32 | who’s very much on the inside of Trump
- 14:34 | World um who is kind of um very Adept at
- 14:39 | getting things done and kind of has said
- 14:41 | he can get these plans directly into the
- 14:43 | hands of Donald Trump and why you a
- 14:46 | British news organization the center for
- 14:49 | climate reporting why you’re so
- 14:51 | interested in Project 2025 and why you
- 14:54 | felt your team felt it was essential to
- 14:58 | be undercover as you continue to even
- 15:02 | you uh as head of the organization not
- 15:04 | wanting to show your
- 15:06 | face um so yeah the we’re a global
- 15:09 | organization like we’re registered in
- 15:11 | the UK but we’ve got reporters in New
- 15:13 | York Berlin and London um and this
- 15:16 | really was part of a project that we’ve
- 15:18 | started a few months ago um looking at
- 15:21 | populist movements around the world and
- 15:23 | this investigation actually started um
- 15:26 | by looking at the this movement in
- 15:29 | Europe there’s just been some um big
- 15:31 | European elections and um the populist
- 15:34 | parties in Europe have really kind of
- 15:36 | come to power and kind of got much more
- 15:38 | influence in um the European Union at
- 15:41 | the moment and so our investigation
- 15:43 | actually started there but these are
- 15:45 | these are international movements they
- 15:48 | there there huge transatlantic links so
- 15:51 | the leads that we were following from
- 15:53 | Europe actually led to Washington DC and
- 15:56 | project
- 15:57 | 2025 um and it’s that point that it
- 16:00 | became the project has become more
- 16:02 | focused on Project 2025 now in terms of
- 16:05 | the um the undercover aspect you know
- 16:08 | undercover has got a um very long and
- 16:11 | respected history actually including in
- 16:12 | the US you know you can go back to the
- 16:14 | Golden Age of investigative journalism
- 16:16 | with have Nelly blae who went undercover
- 16:18 | at a New York sanatorium to expose
- 16:20 | brutal conditions there more recently
- 16:23 | Shane bow from Mother Jones went
- 16:24 | undercover at a Max security prison to
- 16:26 | expose the conditions there you know
- 16:28 | even CNN has done um undercover
- 16:30 | reporting in recent years on brilliant
- 16:32 | report on people smuggling in Nigeria
- 16:36 | sometimes it’s the only way to get the
- 16:37 | story um and and and that that that was
- 16:41 | the case here you know they’re going to
- 16:43 | Great Lengths to keep this aspect of
- 16:44 | project 2025 secret you know you you
- 16:47 | could see in um from mik medac croft’s
- 16:50 | comments there that they don’t want the
- 16:51 | American public to see what they’re
- 16:53 | doing that’s why they’re trying to
- 16:55 | avoiding work emails for example and how
- 16:57 | they intend to distribute these plans
- 17:00 | and so sometimes you
- 17:02 | know you could get a whistleblower maybe
- 17:04 | but kind of in in this case we felt that
- 17:07 | going under cover was the only way in
- 17:09 | which we were going to get get this
- 17:10 | story um and so we weighed up the kind
- 17:13 | of um the public interest arguments in
- 17:16 | favor of doing so with the kind of you
- 17:18 | know the reasonable expectation of
- 17:20 | privacy that an individual has and in in
- 17:24 | this case we felt that the kind of there
- 17:25 | was an overwhelming public interest in
- 17:27 | going undercover and kind of revealing
- 17:30 | the way in which um a kind of largely
- 17:34 | dark money funded um network of
- 17:37 | organizations with kind of quite radical
- 17:39 | plans that are unpopular if you poll
- 17:41 | them are seeking to enact that agenda um
- 17:46 | and why is a climate organization doing
- 17:48 | all this well you
- 17:50 | know the fossil fuel industry is kind of
- 17:53 | um obviously a major focus of investive
- 17:56 | organizations like mine that um that
- 17:59 | work on climate but if you look at
- 18:01 | actually the sort of key threats to um
- 18:05 | much needed kind of action on climate
- 18:08 | change the rise of the populist right
- 18:10 | around the world is kind of is just as
- 18:13 | important in our view and so that’s kind
- 18:15 | of was the Genesis of this project um is
- 18:18 | to start kind of looking at those
- 18:19 | movements and the threat that they pose
- 18:22 | I want to get your response to the
- 18:23 | statement issued Thursday by Russell
- 18:26 | votes nonprofit the center for renew
- 18:29 | America which downplayed your undercover
- 18:31 | video and said it didn’t reveal anything
- 18:34 | new spokesperson Rachel colie said quote
- 18:37 | it would have been easier just to do a
- 18:40 | Google search to uncover what is already
- 18:43 | on our website and set in countless
- 18:44 | National media interviews but thank you
- 18:47 | for airing our perfect conversation
- 18:49 | emphasizing our policy work is totally
- 18:52 | separate from the Trump campaign as we
- 18:54 | have been saying she said your response
- 18:57 | Lawrence Carter um yeah they would say
- 19:01 | that wouldn’t they
- 19:03 | um it’s clear from the from the
- 19:05 | recordings that they are actively
- 19:08 | seeking to keep this stuff secret um so
- 19:11 | again going back to the comments from
- 19:13 | the their research director mik medof
- 19:15 | they don’t want people to know what’s in
- 19:17 | these plans they don’t want them to know
- 19:19 | what they’re working on and so what we
- 19:22 | found was a that you know that they’re
- 19:24 | seeking to keep it um secret from the
- 19:27 | American public ahead of the election
- 19:28 | they don’t want people to see this
- 19:29 | before they vote um but crucially the
- 19:32 | the actual details of how they’re going
- 19:34 | to go uh about doing these things you
- 19:36 | know we now know that the 350 documents
- 19:39 | mik medof said there’s a big stack of
- 19:41 | them waiting to be handed into um
- 19:44 | transition teams um the other crucial
- 19:47 | thing that we’ve kind of established
- 19:49 | which is kind of um very much not what
- 19:51 | they’re saying publicly is that this is
- 19:53 | there’s this very strong relationship
- 19:55 | with both the Trump campaign and Donald
- 19:58 | Trump himself s you know project 2025
- 20:01 | has insisted it’s separate from um the
- 20:03 | Trump operation um the Trump campaign
- 20:06 | has disavowed project 2025 but here we
- 20:08 | have Russell vote he oversaw the GOP
- 20:11 | platform he’s a former Trump Cabinet
- 20:13 | member he told us he speaks with Trump
- 20:15 | regularly um he’s writing the party
- 20:18 | platform for this year’s um election
- 20:21 | whilst at the same time overseeing um
- 20:24 | this kind of pipeline of uh uh documents
- 20:27 | blueprints for the next ministration as
- 20:29 | part of project 2025 and that’s
- 20:31 | certainly not something that um they
- 20:33 | would talk about in public so yeah very
- 20:35 | interesting resp yeah Kevin Roberts the
- 20:38 | head of the Heritage Foundation um has
- 20:41 | this new book coming out dawn’s early
- 20:43 | light taking back Washington to save
- 20:45 | America with a forward by none other
- 20:48 | than president Trump’s vice presidential
- 20:50 | running mate JD Vance um political
- 20:53 | rights JD Vance the Republican Vice
- 20:55 | Presidential nominee has written the
- 20:57 | forward to the fourth coming book um in
- 21:00 | March Roberts told Politico Senator
- 21:03 | Vance was quote absolutely going um uh
- 21:07 | it was absolutely going to be one of the
- 21:09 | leaders if not the leader of our
- 21:13 | movement after Vance was named as
- 21:16 | Trump’s running mate Robert said the
- 21:17 | Heritage Foundation had been privately
- 21:19 | quote really rooting for him to be the
- 21:22 | pick even though Trump’s campaign of
- 21:25 | course has disavowed any connection to
- 21:28 | project
- 21:29 | 2025
- 21:32 | Lawrence yeah I mean that was kind of um
- 21:35 | also borne out by our conversations with
- 21:38 | um Russell vot and mik medt you know
- 21:40 | they’re very excited about the JD Vans
- 21:43 | pick and it’s because they see him as
- 21:45 | one of them um and so yeah they’ve got
- 21:49 | like vot’s got a very good relationship
- 21:50 | with Trump he’s got a great relationship
- 21:52 | with the Trump campaign you know he’s
- 21:53 | been actively collaborating with the
- 21:55 | Trump campaign on earned media hits for
- 21:57 | example um which the Trump campaign um
- 22:01 | sought in which the Trump campaign
- 22:03 | sought to um convey what a second Trump
- 22:05 | term would look like they had um Russell
- 22:08 | vote speak to the media for them to to
- 22:12 | articulate that and he spoke to the Time
- 22:14 | Magazine For example about his work on
- 22:16 | Project 2025 so there that those strong
- 22:19 | relationships already there but then you
- 22:21 | have you know the JD Vance pick he’s
- 22:24 | literally one of them as as far as they
- 22:26 | see it and they’re excited about it
- 22:29 | and the views of project 2025 when it
- 22:32 | comes to and votes views on abortion on
- 22:36 | marriage equality Lawrence
- 22:40 | Carter yeah so again the findings were
- 22:44 | that they for example on abortion um
- 22:47 | they saw that their goal is ultimately a
- 22:50 | national ban um they but they’re very
- 22:53 | they’re pragmatic like Russell vot is a
- 22:55 | pragmatic um member of project 2025 and
- 22:58 | he sees that in his words that would
- 23:00 | mean electoral Annihilation for Trump if
- 23:03 | he committed to that so actually their
- 23:05 | strategy is to kind of go after abortion
- 23:07 | by kind of more executive powers like
- 23:10 | for example if if he was reappointed to
- 23:12 | the office for management and budget
- 23:13 | blocking that um funding for Planned
- 23:16 | Parenthood um again like he talked about
- 23:19 | um um marriage equality in terms of this
- 23:22 | is kind of a fight that we need to start
- 23:24 | having but it’s one that they’re further
- 23:26 | behind in compared to abortion but the
- 23:28 | goal again is to kind of end marriage
- 23:31 | equality um similarly kind of they’re
- 23:34 | pursuing various strategies to try and
- 23:35 | ban
- 23:36 | pornography um so yeah it’s kind of it’s
- 23:40 | quite a kind of radical agenda from the
- 23:42 | kind of social conservatism point of
- 23:44 | view but um Russell vot is certainly on
- 23:47 | the end of the spectrum of kind of what
- 23:48 | is politically possible um rather than
- 23:51 | kind of I guess the more Heritage
- 23:52 | Foundation approach which is kind of um
- 23:55 | you know more
- 23:56 | absolutist Lauren scarter I want Tok
- 23:58 | thank you for being with us founder and
- 24:00 | director of the center for climate
- 24:01 | reporting we’ll link to your new
- 24:03 | investigation undercover in Project 2025
- 24:07 | the secretive second phase and the
- 24:08 | radical policy set for rollout on day
- 24:11 | one
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