Scott Perry and right-wing host enthusiastically praised Project 2025
Prompted by host Chris Stigall, Perry pushed Project 2025 as a solution for conservatives to bring “some accountability” to government
Written by Eric Hananoki
Published
During an interview in July, Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA) and right-wing podcaster Chris Stigall enthusiastically praised and defended Project 2025. After Stigall says he's “thrilled” that Project 2025 is “thinking beyond today,” Perry replied that he was “exactly right,” and touted the Heritage Foundation initiative, saying, “These people on the left ... they're scared to death that there's actually a plan.”
Project 2025 is the deeply unpopular, radical right-wing blueprint organized by The Heritage Foundation that is intended to provide policy and personnel recommendations to the next Republican presidential administration.
It has become an albatross for Trump, who has claimed that he knows “nothing” about the project despite his numerous connections to it.
But the project did get a strong defense during the July 13 edition of The Chris Stigall Podcast, where Perry and the show’s conservative host praised Project 2025.
Citation From the July 13, 2024, edition of The Chris Stigall Podcast
Stigall began the discussion about Project 2025 by defending it, saying: “I don't think this is a huge scandal. I don't think there's anything secret or subversive about it. I totally understand what it is. The Heritage Foundation has the idea, we want to stock the halls of government, which are vast and full of left-wing progressives. We would like to actually bring conservatives from around the country in to stockpile and staff all of these many bureaucracies. I think it's nothing more complicated than that. Have I got it about right, Scott?”
Perry agreed, saying, in part: “Yeah, you've got it completely right. It's a coalition of different organizations that are generally like-minded but not completely that are trying to be prepared for a future Trump presidency.”
The two continued, with Stigall stating that he’s “thrilled” about Project 2025. Perry then said that liberals are attacking it because “there actually could be some accountability” in government and it’s a plan to “get rid of their agenda and stop their agenda.”
CHRIS STIGALL (HOST): I'm thrilled that conservatives for once are thinking beyond today. They're looking down the road because the left always does.
SCOTT PERRY (CONGRESSMAN): Yeah, that’s exactly right. And at this point, because of what happened the last time when President Trump came in, not knowing all the people in Washington and thinking that actually people in Washington would accept his agenda and know that there were career government employees. But there was a new sheriff in town and now we're going to do something different. And then he found out that's not how it works.
These people on the left are scared to death that there actually could be some accountability and that they're not going to be able to just sit in there and promote their leftist agenda and say, “Oh, Mr. President, we don't work for you. We're just going to wait you out for four years and we're going to continue to march towards communism.” They're scared to death that there's actually a plan and that the right [inaudible]paring to remove them from the halls of power and get rid of their agenda and stop their agenda. You know, they just saw that President Trump is an anomaly and they want to march towards socialism and Marxism and they don't want anybody to get in the way of that. And anything that looks like it could get in the way of that must be confronted and must be defeated. And so that's where this falls into that category.
Perry also has connections to The Heritage Foundation. He appeared on the November 29 edition of Kevin Roberts’ podcast and said he was “honored” and “thrilled” to be on the show. Roberts is the president of The Heritage Foundation and the architect of Project 2025.
And in January of this year, Perry co-wrote an op-ed with Victoria Coates criticizing a retracted plan by the National Park Service to remove a statue of William Penn in Pennsylvania. Coates is a Heritage Foundation vice president who is listed as a Project 2025 contributor.
Perry’s has deep connections with right-wing media, including with a 9/11 conspiracy theorist
Perry is a repeat guest on various right-wing media networks, including on Fox News, Newsmax, and One America News. He also has repeatedly appeared on the show of Ken Matthews and said during one appearance: “I love Ken Matthews. He's awesome. He's one of the only people in the media with courage to really talk about the important things.”
Matthews is a 9/11 conspiracy theorist who devoted a show to pushing 9/11 conspiracy theories with a leading 9/11 conspiracy theorist. He also said, “I question the crash at Flight 77 into the Pentagon. I have so many questions about the Pentagon. Everything about it. The building, the damage, the burn. I always question burns and explosives and things like that. But no video of the aircraft.” (In fact, there was video of the aircraft.)
Matthews also said: “I lost respect for science over 9/11. That’s when I really lost respect for scientists, excuse me. I don’t — I respect science, but the scientists? What 9/11 proved, what COVID proved, scientists are just as buyable as everybody else.”
Perry has also shared an antisemitic meme and a post from a social media account that has promoted pro-Nazi material, shared white nationalist propaganda, and attacked people for being Jewish.