Trying to tie the Trump-Vance ticket to Project 2025, an initiative from the Heritage Foundation, is the lie that just won't die. Such a connection has been fact-checked plenty of times before, including by CNN, and fact-checker Daniel Dale was forced to weigh in again on Wednesday night after Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-DE), who is running to represent Delaware in the U.S. Senate, falsely claimed Donald Trump "wrote a book... Project 2025."
The outrageous claim came during the congresswoman's speech on Wednesday night, with Dale on the network to fact-check such claims hours later.
"That is false," Dale made clear, after a clip of Blunt Rochester's remarks were played. "Trump did not write Project 2025. The project's big policy document published by the Heritage Foundation think tank lists dozens of people as authors, editors, contributors. Donald Trump is not among them."
CNN fact checks @LisaBRochester's lie that President Trump "wrote Project 2025."
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) August 22, 2024
(President Trump has nothing to do with Project 2025) pic.twitter.com/vkoiIGrEAU
A written fact-check from CNN also included a statement from Noah Weinrich, a spokesperson for Project 2025. "Project 2025 is not affiliated with any candidate, and no candidate was involved with the drafting of the Mandate for Leadership, which was published by Heritage in April 2023," he said in a statement sent to CNN on Wednesday night.
Trump has repeatedly distanced himself from Project 2025, with CNN also mentioning he has said that some parts of the 920-document are "absolutely ridiculous and abysmal."
In a statement from the Trump campaign on July 30, Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita were also quite clear. "President 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 the President in any way," they said. "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 President Trump and his campaign— it will not end well for you."
Democrats have made it a habit of bringing up Project 2025 throughout the DNC this week. Gov. Jared Polis' (D-CO) claims about what it actually entailed were also fact-checked as false, given that the governor flat-out lied about what page 451 of the document actually reads.
There have been plenty of comments from Democrats about Project 2025 before the DNC, as President Joe Biden himself claimed last week that his Project 2025 was to "beat the hell out 'em," referring to Republicans.
As mentioned, Democrats have been fact-checked before about Project 2025, with Dale fact-checking the Harris campaign. Particularly notable is that the fact-check revealed that the decision that the campaign has made to mislead voters. "A Harris campaign official said the campaign has 'made a deliberate decision to brand all of Trump’s policies' as 'Project 2025,' since they believe 'it has stuck with voters,'" a fact-check from last month revealed.
It also looks like we'll be hearing plenty of more lies about Project 2025, given that House Democrats are formed a task force about the initiative. Dale is likely going to be quite busy holding the Democrats accountable on this front.
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