Biden, Democrats take aim at Project 2025, the sweeping, 900-page conservative plan

Democrats are trying to get ahead of conservatives eager to measure the drapes in the Oval Office ahead of the election as polls show former President Donald Trump leading President Joe Biden. Project 2025 is a sweeping, 900-page plan drummed up by a conservative think tank targeting the executive branch and laying out right-wing priorities for everything from America's education system to the border and abortion restrictions.

While the proposal is broad, Democratic lawmakers and allies are zeroing in on the conservative blueprint as they face off against Republicans from coast to coast this year, hoping it will corral voters to their side.

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"Project 2025 will destroy America," Biden said in a video released on social media Wednesday morning, paired with a webpage created by the Biden campaign dedicated to breaking down the detailed proposal.

"Project 2025 is the plan by Donald Trump’s MAGA Republican allies to give Trump more power over your daily life, gut democratic checks and balances, and consolidate power in the Oval Office if he wins," the website reads.

But what would Project 2025 specifically do? The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank in Washington created the plan, also known as the "2025 Presidential Transition Project" for the country's next conservative president to follow. Published in April 2023, it includes a domestic and foreign policy agenda, a list of personnel, training and a 180-day playbook.

Within the initiative are ideas to gut federal agencies, including the FBI; eliminate the Department of Education; ban abortion drugs; and overhaul progressive policies such as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, sometimes referred to as Obamacare. The project's website lays out a goal: "pave the way for an effective conservative administration" by putting forth an agenda and getting "the right people in place."

What is Project 2025? The Presidential Transition Project explained.

Out on the campaign trail, Biden isn't the only Democrat railing against Project 2025 as Democrats try to win over pivotal voters.

"It's not just radical policy changes. It's not just regime change that we might never recover from," Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., said Tuesday during an event hosted by the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank.

"It also is a kind of civilizational death wish," he continued.

Fellow Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, called Project 2025 a "playbook for authoritarianism" during a congressional hearing in May.

Progressives aren't just working to spread awareness of the plan. They also want to tie it back to the former president and presumptive GOP nominee. It's a strategy that started even before Trump gained on Biden in recent polls following the president's rocky debate performance and public doubts about the future of his reelection campaign.

The Center for American Progress and the left-leaning advocacy group Accountable.US released polling this week that they say shows public opinion is against the conservative plan. Proposals to stop overtime pay and a national abortion ban were among the project's most unpopular ideas, the poll found.

And in a briefing Tuesday, the organizations say they are strategizing how to inform more voters ahead of Nov. 5.

"For a few months now, we were really alarmed not only by the breadth and scope of what this agenda is, but also by coordination among the entire conservative ecosystem," said Tony Carrk, executive director of Accountable.US, a left-leaning advocacy group.

Still, many conservatives haven't publicly embraced Project 2025.

The Lincoln Project, a political action committee formed by Republicans who have long opposed Trump, released a video Monday depicting what they call a "terrible future" under a second Trump administration and the Project 2025 blueprint.

Trump himself has sought distance from Project 2025, writing in a Truth Social post Friday he knows "nothing" about the proposed plan.

“I disagree with some of the things they’re saying and some of the things they’re saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal," Trump said. "Anything they do, I wish them luck, but I have nothing to do with them.”

But Democrats are pushing back, pointing out that multiple authors of the initiative worked in the former Trump administration, including Roger Severino, the previous director of the Office of Civil Rights at the Department of Health and Human Services.

Despite Trump's criticism of Project 2025, Democrats are still leaning into alarms around the proposal as they campaign against the former president and his allies.

"The plan is to institute Trumpism," Carrk said. "I can't think of what Trumpism is in black and white on paper than this plan. So, they're saying that they're going to do it, and I think we need to believe them."

Contributing: Rachel Barber, USA TODAY

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Biden, Dems take aim at Project 2025, the sweeping conservative plan