Vice President Kamala Harris called out Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) for not bringing up Project 2025 in his speech at the Republican National Convention on Wednesday.
“Frankly, what is very telling is what [Vance] did not talk about on that stage. He did not talk about Project 2025, their 900-page blueprint for a second Trump term,” Harris said at a campaign event in Fayetteville, North Carolina, on Thursday. “He did not talk about it because their plans are extreme and they are divisive.”
Project 2025 is a 920-page far-right policy document that has been dubbed an authoritarian playbook. It seeks to redesign the government and lays out hundreds of proposals, including attacks on the LGBTQ+ community, reproductive freedom, education and more.
Donald Trump, who formally became the Republican Party’s presidential nominee at the RNC on Monday, has tried to distance himself from Project 2025, although multiple people who worked in his administration have contributed to it.
Meanwhile, Vance, Trump’s running mate, has said that the document has both “good ideas” and “some things he disagreed with,” but that it “has no affiliation with the Trump campaign.”
Harris’ remarks Thursday arrive several days after the Saturday assassination attempt on Trump.
“In recent days, they’ve been trying to portray themselves as a party of unity. But here’s the thing, if you claim to stand for unity, you need to do more than just use the word,” Harris said during the North Carolina campaign event. “You cannot claim you stand for unity if you are pushing an agenda that deprives whole groups of Americans of basic freedoms, opportunity and dignity. You cannot claim you stand for unity if you are intent on taking reproductive freedoms from the people of America and the women of America.”
Vance’s speech on Wednesday largely attempted to play into the new GOP position of unity following the Trump rally shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania.
“Our disagreements actually make us stronger, like my time in the U.S. Senate,” Vance said. “Sometimes I persuade my colleagues, and sometimes they persuade me. Shouldn’t we be governed by a party that isn’t afraid to debate ideas and come to the best solution?”
