Project 2025 Leader Alludes to Political Violence
Critics slam Heritage Foundation's ultra-conservative Kevin Roberts for casting the upcoming election as a "second American Revolution."
The president of the Heritage Foundation, the conservative think tank behind the development of the right-wing Project 2025 initiative, is being slammed for implying that this year’s U.S. elections may devolve into violence.
Kevin Roberts made the comment last Tuesday on Steve Bannon’s “War Room” podcast, which was hosted by former U.S. Rep. Dave Brat (R-Va.).
Roberts was commenting on the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that presidents enjoy presumptive immunity for any actions performed in their official capacity — a decision handing former President Donald Trump a potential victory as he fights indictments over his alleged attempts to overturn the 2020 election results.
“The left has taken over our institutions,” Roberts said. “The reason that they are apoplectic right now, the reason so many anchors on MSNBC, for example, are losing their minds daily, is because our side is winning.
“And so I come full circle on this response, and just want to encourage you with some substance. That we are in the process of the second American revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be.”
Roberts later elaborated on those comments in a post on X, claiming that the political Left may do in 2024 what it has accused Trump and election-denying Republicans of doing since 2020 — attempting to block the peaceful transfer of power.
“Americans in 2024 are in the process of carrying out the Second American Revolution to take power back from the elites and despotic bureaucrats,” he wrote. “These patriots are committed to peaceful revolution at the ballot box.”
Heritage also repeated the “bloodless” comment in a separate post on X, alleging that Democrats have a propensity for instigating violence and rioting against political or social developments they don’t like.
That post featured a video compilation of prominent Democrats making controversial comments about unrest and protests.
“The Second American Revolution will remain bloodless if the Left allows it to be,” the think tank wrote on its official account. “Unfortunately, they have a well established record of instigating the opposite.”
Joe Biden’s presidential campaign slammed the comment, with a campaign spokesperson saying that the incendiary rhetoric of Trump backers — including Heritage — are “dreaming of a violent revolution to destroy the very idea of America.”
Former U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), a Trump critic, questioned what the implications would be if the “Left” did not “allow” such a revolution.
“What if Americans decide they prefer to hash out differences as the constitution calls for, vis a vis politics, then what? Spell it out. If you can win politically then what?” Kinzinger wrote on X.
And if they dont? What if Americans decide they prefer to hash out differences as the constitution calls for, vis a vis politics, then what? Spell it out. If you can win politically then what? pic.twitter.com/Er1CY8WdwJ
— Adam Kinzinger (Slava Ukraini) 🇺🇸🇺🇦🇮🇱 (@AdamKinzinger) July 5, 2024
Democratic presidential candidate Marianne Williamson, who has been critical of the Biden administration, also responded to Roberts’ comments. “This is chilling. Their idea of a second American Revolution is to undo the first one,” she posted on X.
The outrage over the comment comes as Biden allies have sought to spotlight Project 2025, an initiative being pushed by a coalition of 110 organizations, including Heritage. The project proposes a host of policy proposals for the next Republican presidential administration that amount to a right-wing power grab that would install a conservative form of government with little accountability.
Among its various positions, Project 2025 proposes that the entire federal bureaucracy, including independent agencies like the Department of Justice, be placed under direct presidential control, meaning the president would have the power to directly implement various policies, unimpeded by Congress.
The initiative proposes the idea that thousands of career federal government employees could be abruptly terminated for political reasons and replaced with presidential loyalists.
It calls for the defunding of public television and the elimination of the Department of Education; withdrawing abortion medication from the market; banning pornography; and allowing corporations to stop paying workers overtime.
Project 2025 also proposes making it easier to ban books and eliminate references to anything related to race, racism, cultural or ethnic diversity, or LGBTQ-related characters or issues. It calls for the jailing of teachers and librarians accused of allowing children to access such information.
Project 2025 seeks to erase any mention of sexual orientation and gender identity from existing federal laws, agency rules, and regulations; eliminate “diversity, equity, and inclusion” initiatives; and categorize information about LGBTQ identity as “pornographic.”
Democrats have seized on Project 2025 as an example of the types of “extreme” policies that Trump, taking his lead from the conservative coalition behind the initiative — including several figures from his first administration — would put into place if re-elected to the presidency.
Even celebrities like Taraji P. Henson, who urged viewers at the recent BET Awards to “look up” Project 2025, have sought to warn the American public about how an unbridled Right would seek to reshape the country.
The increased scrutiny on the project, and the seeming unpopularity of some of its more extreme prescriptions for governance, appeared to rankle former President Trump, who sought to distance himself from the initiative.
Posting on his Truth Social account, Trump said he “know[s] nothing about Project 2025” and has “no idea who is behind it.”
“I disagree with some of the things they’re saying and some of the things they’re saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal,” he then wrote, instantly contradicting the fact that he knows nothing about it.
Heritage stood by its comments, dismissing the criticism as being disingenuous, and accusing the Biden campaign and its allies of “obsessing” over the right-wing policy proposals.
“As we’ve been saying for more than two years now, Project 2025 does not speak for any candidate or campaign,” the organization wrote on X. We are a coalition of more than 110 conservative groups advocating policy & personnel recommendations for the next conservative president.”
🧵PROJECT 2025 SPOKESPERSON:
“As we’ve been saying for more than two years now, Project 2025 does not speak for any candidate or campaign.
We are a coalition of more than 110 conservative groups advocating policy & personnel recommendations for the next conservative president.
— Project 2025 (@Prjct2025) July 5, 2024
The think tank then took a dig at President Biden’s recent poor debate performance and ongoing speculations — promoted by mainstream media outlets — that the president’s mental acuity is declining, adding, “Rather than obsessing over Project 2025, the Biden campaign should be addressing the 25th Amendment.”
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