Kaitlan Collins is preparing for Tuesday’s presidential debate by getting some clarification on a likely topic of conversation: Project 2025.
Paul Dans, the former director of Project 2025, sat down with the CNN anchor on Monday night (a month after canceling his initial appearance) for his first TV interview since exiting the controversial org in late July.
CNN began their segment by playing a montage of Trump distancing himself from the strategic maneuver — “We have nothing to do with Project 2025,” “I don’t even know what the hell it is,” “I don’t know anything about it” — offset by Dans previously doing the exact opposite: “We’re going to make this happen under President Trump,” “It’s going to be a D-Day invasion plan,” “I’m a forever Trumper.”
“Trump’s the greatest debater, bar none, of our time and the breaking news is: Trump has nothing to do with Project 2025. Sure, a lot of us worked in the admin and came together, but this started long before he even announced for president,” Dans said at the top of their conversation. “It was really a coming together of the conservative movement and I think that’s what’s been so threatening to the left. Our side’s always been prone to in-fighting and what we were able to do here is bring together 110 groups and really lay out a common sense plan. Not everyone agrees with what’s in that book, but the book’s actually only part of the plan. What we did was invite people from all over the country to get back into their government.”
Collins then pointed out that six of Trump’s former cabinet secretaries, 140 staffers and Dans himself all had a hand in Project 2025 — Chris Miller, Peter Navarro and Johnny McEntee included. “How can you say he didn’t have anything to do with it?” she asked.
“Well, he personally didn’t have anything to do with it,” Dans replied. “Certainly a lot of folks who worked on it came out of the Trump administration, but that’s natural for any Republican administration; you’re going to have carryover for the next one, and in this case it’s conservative. But look, those ideas were open to Joe Biden to implement if he wants to and they actually are, which is a funny thing.”
Watch the full interview below:
Collins then asked, “Does it bother you when Trump calls it ‘abysmal’ and ‘ridiculous?’ Something you worked on for two years?”
Dans took that opportunity to renounce controversial rhetoric such as a second American Revolution and “bloodlessness,” as he put it, insisting that “we have to lower the temperature in this country.” Still, he maintained that the actual Project 2025 does not feature much of what people fear it does, labeling that confusion as “misinformation.”
To that, however, Collins quickly pointed out that the conservative campaign does indeed lay out plans to combat mifepristone and abortion access, as well as prescription drugs by targeting the Inflation Reduction Act. Ultimately, Dans insisted that the 400 conservatives who worked on Project 2025 are mostly looking to restore the family unit, help children and protect our borders.
He also admitted he’s only met Trump in passing, adding, “It’s not a threat to democracy, it’s a threat to bureaucracy. It’s putting the America, We the People, back into the government. Right now, we have a permanent government in Washington … it’s Kennedy-esque.”
Collins ended their chat by replaying Trump’s former condemnation of Project 2025, further pointing out that the former president and “Celebrity Apprentice” host’s name is in the document 300 times.
“Trump’s campaign has been very clear for over a year that Project 2025 had nothing to do with the campaign, did not speak for the campaign and should not be associated with the campaign or Trump in any way. Reports of Project 2025’s demise would be greatly welcomed and should serve as notice to anyone or any group trying to misrepresent their influence with Trump and his campaign — it will not end well for you,” campaign managers Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita said in a statement.
Trump is set to debate Vice President Kamala Harris in the first 2024 Presidential election debate Tuesday night on ABC News.
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