'Okay, interesting': CNN host skeptical of GOP consultant's Project 2025 denials
CNN's Sarah Sidner pushed back against a Republican consultant who played down concerns about the controversial Project 2025 blueprint for a second Donald Trump administration.
Russell Vought, the president-elect's nominee for White House budget director, is expected to face tough questions from senators about his involvement with the right-wing agenda that became a key topic in the 2024 campaign after polling found it was widely known and deeply unpopular with voters, but Sen. Marco Rubio's former campaign manager told CNN that those concerns were overblown.
"I mean, look, the the Project 2025 talking points didn't work in the election for Democrats, and I'm not sure it's going to work now," said Terry Sullivan, who oversaw Rubio's unsuccessful 2016 presidential bid. "No one gives a flying – well, no one cares about some, you know, think tank in Washington, D.C., and so, look, he's a qualified guy for the job. He's a policy person, he was in the the administration before. He's loyal to Donald Trump – shocker, Donald Trump picks people that are loyal to him, and so he's going to do a good job. He's got the experience, he's loyal to the president and, yeah, I mean, look, so he worked for a think tank in D.C. that no one really knows about."
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Sidner cocked her head at those claims, saying that Project 2025 and its authors at the right-wing Heritage Foundation were broadly known and disliked.
"A lot of people know about it now, though, because it did become a talking point," she said, but Sullivan interrupted.
"They don't don't know the details about it, I mean, beyond beyond the name, 2025, which was a talking point in the campaign," Sullivan interjected, "no one really knows much about this think tank. I mean, there's not a lot of lot of visibility into it, so I don't know that they do know a lot about it."
Sidner remained skeptical, saying that some of the blueprint's policy proposals were deeply unpopular.
"Okay, interesting," she said. "Because a lot of people talking about getting rid of the Department of Education, for example. So there are some things that have come up to the fore where the public has been talking about it."
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