Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg on Wednesday dropped a reason why Project 2025, the far-right presidential transition plan, is “extremely unpopular.”
“So much so that I'm pretty sure this is the first time in modern history that a presidential candidate has had to relinquish his own policy framework,” Buttigieg told MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace.
Buttigieg's comments come a day after The Heritage Foundation, the conservative think tank that launched Project 2025, announced that the controversial plan's director, Paul Dans, is stepping down.
Former President Donald Trump has attempted to distance himself from Project 2025, claiming he “knows nothing about it,” despite previously praising the “great group” behind it and his running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), who wrote a foreword for the upcoming book by Kevin Roberts, president of The Heritage Foundation.
Wallace asked Buttigieg if the Republican candidate would choose Vance, a vice presidential pick she called the “human embodiment” of the 900-page policy plan.
Buttigieg, who is reportedly being considered as a potential running mate for Vice President Kamala Harris, explained that the plan was “already” the GOP administration’s agenda before anyone thought to write it up and call it Project 2025.
“It's part of the playbook that they followed when they were in charge and so it will undoubtedly be their agenda again in office if he's re-elected,” Buttigieg said.
He later continued: “The problem is not this thing called Project 2025, the problem is the administration's agenda itself. Project 2025 is just the footnotes to what they plan to do, which is enormously unpopular with the American people because it's full of crazy ideas that don't make sense.”
Buttigieg: Project 2025 is incredibly unpopular. So much so that I’m pretty sure this is the first time in modern history that a presidential candidate has had to abandon his own policy framework. photo.twitter.com/0xAkjQ6Kp3
— Acyn (@Acyn) July 31, 2024
