After airing footage of VP Kamala Harris criticizing Project 2025, Fox News rushes to distance Trump and Vance from it
Published
As Media Matters has previously noted, GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump has claimed that he has “nothing to do with” Project 2025, a broad effort to develop a blueprint for the next Republican presidential administration, but the initiative’s inner circle has a closely linked history to Trump and his previous administration. At least 140 former Trump administration staffers have worked on Project 2025, and Trump’s policy for his second term has significant overlap with the Project 2025 agenda.
Reporting has also shown many ties between GOP VP nominee J.D. Vance and Project 2025 architects.
Citation From the July 18, 2024, edition of Fox News' America Reports
KAMALA HARRIS (VICE PRESIDENT): So some of you may have heard Donald Trump's running mate deliver remarks at the Republican National Convention. He talked about his life story about growing up in Southwest Ohio, and it was compelling. It's a compelling story. And it was not the full story. Frankly, what is very telling is what he did not talk about on that stage.
He did not talk about Project 2025. Their 900-page blueprint for a second Trump term. He did not talk about it because their plans are extreme and they are divisive. In recent days, they've been trying to portray themselves as the party of unity. But here's the thing — here's the thing.
If you claim to stand for unity, you need to do more than just use the word. You cannot claim you stand for unity if you are pushing an agenda that deprives whole groups of Americans of basic freedoms, opportunity, and dignity. You cannot claim you stand for unity if you are intent on taking reproductive freedoms from the people of America and the women of America - trying to ban abortion nationwide as they do and restrict access to IVF and contraception as their plan calls for. You cannot claim to be for unity if you try to overturn a free and fair election and threaten to terminate the United States Constitution.
And you cannot claim to be for unity when your entire economic agenda is designed to prioritize billionaires and big corporations over the middle class. We're too busy watching what you're doing to hear what you're saying.
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But with the selection of his running mate this week, Donald Trump is also trying to distract people. He wants to direct attention away from his record and his Project 2025 plan to suggest that he and his running mate are going to prioritize the middle class, but we are not buying it. We are not falling for the okeydoke.
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SANDRA SMITH (FOX ANCHOR): A lot to dig into with our guests coming up. But first, what we heard from Kamala Harris on former President Donald Trump's running mate pick, J.D. Vance at the RNC convention. If you claim to stand for unity, you need to do more than just use the word.
There was also a reference to Project 2025, which we should note is not a Trump plan, it's not a J.D. Vance plan, it's a Heritage Foundation plan. In fact, his running mate J.D. Vance, that she referenced, has not explicitly endorsed Project 2025, in fact, he said he disagrees with some of it. And, he's disavowed it having any connection to the Trump campaign. But interesting to see her approach as calls grow in the Democrat party for Biden to step aside in this race, John.