What is Project 2025?

fraud is finally confirmed. Right, not so much y'all have been asking, So we are finally answering. On this week's deep dive, we dig into Project twenty twenty five. It is nothing more than proof that one side is gearing up for political war and another is treating this election like it's just one of them days. Maybe that's what Meet Mills meant when he said the odds against you, and they double stacked.

And I want to tell y'all, I think the real issue is that in September, the Biden administration sent a letter from Secretaries Corodona and Vilsack of Education and Agriculture, respectively, to several states that have land grant institutions, including Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia.

And do you know of all of the recipients of those letters, the one with the largest debt to a school to a land grant institution was Tennessee with two point one billion dollars, as referenced in bo Mitchell sound just there. I want to play justin Pearson sound a legislator also from Tennessee, who you all know has been making a lot of waves.

and M University. What that means is the Department of Agriculture of the United States of America allocates or a set of federal dollars that make their way to those institutions, and then the state has to meet its side of the bargain, which is to fund both of their how do you say land grand institution at their required levels.

What the representative was saying was UT Knoxville got its money every single year, and in some years in excess of what they were required to have been allocated by the legislature, and the case, however, of Tennessee State University, the other established languorine institution, many of the years were never funded at the level that was required. They just

all wholesale misfunding Tennessee State University. And so for those who misunderstand whether this is reparations or if this is ill gotten gains that just never got gotten, understand that the state of Tennessee failed to meet their legal obligation to fund the black school at the same level that it was required to fund, but it funded the white school at the required level in many years above the required level. To my opinion, Tennessee State. First of all,

Glinda Glover is an incredible leader. She's the president of TSU. She is also, i think she's still simultaneously the president the international president of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated. A woman who was a supporter of my campaign for governor, a woman who I would consider a friend, a woman who when she lived as a young person in Washington, d C. Grew up under the tutelage of Mary and Barry.

When she was a student up in Washington, d C, intern FORARS campaign, So she understands hard knocks fighting right well, it has not yet appeared to me whether TSU understands the kind of fight the students, the alumni, the supporters, the national community ought to be rising up right now in defense of TSU because their failure to meet their obligation there to suspend summarily the entire board without any justification. The audit that was done there angela correct me if

I'm wrong, didn't reveal any legal issues malfeasance. They were technical auditing practices and some recommendations for improvement the legislature. There is not hiding who they are, how they feel. They're doing it out loud and on purpose. Within minutes of the legislation passing y'all to dismantle that board, within minutes, the governor had already renamed all new eight members of the board. This was no debate, There was no deliberative

process being had by legislators. Those folks went in there and they gang banged their way using the guise of the law to dismiss a board who was demanding the two billion dollars they would do. And they told them to shut up. They wouldn't shut up. They were told them to sit down somewhere. They wouldn't sit down somewhere and what happened. The state just decided we'll get rid of the troublemakers and replace them with folks who are going to be obedient and subservient. You know.

in funding. Yeah, over thirty years. That's just over the last thirty years, by the way.

just to us as a people, to the country. HBCUs comprised three percent of all universities and colleges, but enroll ten percent of all black students and account for eighty percent of black judges, twenty five percent of black science professionals, seventy percent of dentists and physicians, and forty percent Angelo will appreciate this, forty percent of members of Congress, and twenty.

die become defunded. Even if you didn't attend an HBCU, it's all of our problems. But if you did attend an HBCU, please make sure you're a booster. You're giving back, you're contributing something in some way because they are so important to us as a community but also us as a country. And Andrew, you can testify. You're on the board of trustees at FAM. You HBCUs are strapped, and

there are always students who need money. They'll be students who are two thousand dollars short of graduating or ten thousand dollars short of graduating. So then the faculty, because they love you, run around and try to find money anywhere to get these students to graduate. And they're like literally friendship groups who are like, yeah, I just need two thousand dollars. I have a student in my class or my friend's son is studying at at HBCU and

needs money. The students themselves need so much money, and the funding often comes from outside sources. So I implore people pay attention to this because I don't think it'd be the last school we see you face something like this.

I was acquitted from all charges. Spent a long time coming. I'm so grateful. I'm so humbly grateful, and I knew victory would be there I come, and I'm just so glad that the judges did the right thing. And again I just asked you keep me in your prayers and keep my family uplifted, because again I'm just again just overwhelmed, trying to stay trying not to cry. And I'm yeah, thank you, thank you.

and family. She casted a provisional ballot, which was never actually counted, and still in twenty eighteen, she was convicted and sentenced to five years in prison for election fraud. She's been outfighting the case ever since. It cost her two jobs and an untold amount of emotional and financial stress. She had the PRIs I had the privilege of moderating a panel that Crystal set on last year with the United Justice Coalition and learned about her story, her courage,

and was so impressed with her and her bravery. I'm so happy that she can move on with her life and just want to flag for the audience that Texas tried to make an example out of Crystal. Republicans you'll hear often talk about how big of an issue voter fraud is, and they would know because they're the ones who competed or actually engaging at rit large. But voter fraud is a problem point zero zero zero three percent of the time according to the Brennan Center for Justice.

So with that, I don't know if y'all want to weigh in, but I just think it's an example of injustice in this country being served, and this is one time where she was able to slip out of its grasp.

other legitimately cast ballots are counted. They are set aside to be later cured by a panel of people who look through and figure out whether or not this is right or it isn't. If if there was an issue, it would have been caught there right. So it already tells us the ballot never got counted, she voted provisionally, and the fact that she then gets prosecuted. Your point

around this was a shot over the bow. This is a message to everybody else who might even attempt this, that we can put you in legal jeopardy, costs you your reputation, your livelihood, and so much else, all because we don't want to see you at the polls, you or anybody like you. And I'm just glad that in

this case, you know, justice was had properly. But I'm fearful for the next case, and the next case, and the next case and the case after that, because everyone's not gonna be able to walk away with this same outcome. And I just think that federally, if we have the right to vote, this guaranteed federally, there should be no state able to trump the right of your federal right to participate.

Civil rights movement, I would fill in the blank. Whatever you're doing right now is what you would have been doing during the Civil rights movement. We are under constant attack, not only our liberty but our livelihood, and it is time for everybody to do a little, so not just a few people are left to do a lot right now. Our voting rights are under attack right now. The way we live and survive is under attack. Right now, Our schools are under attack. The way we educate our children

is under attack. Whatever you're doing is what you would have been doing then. And if you're doing something, send us footies and let us know. Like, we want to shout people out who are actually doing something, and it has to go beyond hashtag activism but actual boots on

the ground. So I'll shout out right now Cliff and Latash Brown, who are constantly on the ground doing this work from you know, advocating for Tennessee State, but also for voting rights and Southern black girls and everything in between.

a run for president. We also have our current Vice president, Kamala Harris, who is a California native, has held state and local office here and actually run for president.

look at the next cycle. I would say a week is an eternity in politics, and I would caution people from thinking that twenty twenty eight candidates are already set in stone. I imagine in two thousand and four people thought that until a young senator by the name of Barack Obama came on the scene and disrupted a political dynasty. I would imagine that at some point people thought John Edwards was a you in to be the Democratic nominee for president, until a little affair popped up and he

was knocked out. Every October we have an October surprise, So I would say, let's focus on this particular election, because you'd be surprised.

for sending it. Send it again in four years, and we'll definitely break it down those new slate of candidates, because I hope there's some more young blood, because we should have a wider choice of people to choose from.

will probably be considered. But I also know that there are gonna be people whose names we cannot call right now, who may show up and pop off, similar to what Tiffany mentioned about Barack Obama, the little known state senator come US senator, And so I think it'll be a crowded feel and I don't think there's gonna be any difference given to anyone unless Biden was able to legally run for a third derm, which he can't, so I don't think there's gonna be much difference come around the

next Democratic primary.

four is too big for any one think tank. This has to be a movement, and what we've done is use our convening power haired Heritage to bring the entire movement together. So twenty twenty five is not a Heritage thing, it's a Conservative movement thing. What we're doing is systematically preparing to march into office and bring a new army of aligned, trained, and essentially weaponized conservatives ready to do battle against the deep state.

also known as twenty Project twenty twenty five. All nine hundred plus pages of it have been shared with you, Tiff and Andrew. I did not go through every single page, but I went through enough. And here's the thing that

stood out to me. Woke progressivism, woke culture warriors, woke bureaucrats, woke extremism, woke propaganda, woke agenda, wokeism, woke dominated system of public schools and university, woke revolutionaries whoa radicals, supposedly woke faction, woke policies in corporate America, woke gender ideology, and even the Department of Education got some strays with as a convenient one stop shop for.

of groups, a lot of constituencies have policy agendas. So policy or Project twenty five is kind of like that, but extremely more dangerous. And I'll tell you why. It's a board of more than eighty conservative organizations all's one hundred Now Project is one hundred, one hundred organizations, all linked in this whole cesspool of policies to dark money, including Leonard Leo, who was very influential in shaping the Supreme Court of the United States under Donald Trump, very

attached to him. It does not respect the separation of church and state, and it is literally trying to reimagine the executive brands of government. You heard him say weaponized conservatives. They've put millions of dollars in their political arm Heritage for America. The interesting thing about this Angela U and

Andrew you both probably know this. Heritage Foundation used to be led by a black woman, k Cole James, who is a Hampton University graduate and sister girl was definitely parroting all the talking points, all the ridiculous statements coming out of Heritage Foundation.

run by right wing zealots and MAGA extremists. These are the people they are beholden to. And so the whole list that Angela just ran down. Should Republicans take the presidency and potentially the House and potentially the Senates, they will be able to rough house and ramshot all of these policies through at the federal level, which is their agenda. And Angelo go through all of it. I have more questions than I do answers, but I want to punctuate

how dangerous Project twenty twenty five is. It's not the first time we've seen it, and hopefully it will be the last time we talk about it.

were the Koch Brothers, there was Richard Mellon's. He is the person responsible for founding the Heritage Foundation and setting up the initial cadre of conservative organizations that didn't exist then but were created in the mid nineteen seventies after Republicans felt frankly annihilated after Nixon's stepping down from the White House. At that time, liberals frankly actually had organization. They had funded media outlets, they had funded think tanks,

their ideas had gotten traction. They had just passed the Voting Rights Act. We were thriving in many ways, and at that point, rich white men as represented by scathe, Melonscafe Mills, Cokes, all those folks. They were top five cores as we know the cores be a corps family. The top five Sservative donors got together and put tens of millions, now hundreds of millions of dollars into building what we now know today as the new Conservative movie.

right and governing through the elected process. Now it is about the tens of I don't know hundreds of thousands of federal workers who will now be replaced as public servants, which means these are these are individuals who serve regardless of whether there's a democratic or Republican administration. Where these folks kept getting caught up were because they wanted to

achieve one goal. But career service people, professionals who work in the Department of Agriculture and Energy and education will say, oh, I'm so sorry, mister secretary, you can't do that, because that's against the law per section such and such and such and such and such. Well, they don't want people checking them like that. They want loyalists who are willing to do whatever the executive says. These people envisioned something that is known as the unitary executive, and what that

means is not just. They don't believe in a separation of powers. They don't believe in a separation of states, separation of governance, meaning the judiciary the executive in the legislative. They believe that the president, when elected president, has allsought the power. I have news for those folks. We got rid of that when we were founded. The American Revolution was about throwing off the yoke of the unitary executive the king. We don't elect kings in the United States

of America. So if anybody ever gets deluded that these folks are actually championing democracy, that these folks actually believe in standing up, protecting, conserving the constitution, or that their strict construction is we hear that term a lot of times referred to Republicans or conservatives that's not what it is at all. They only believe that to this end

that their agenda wins. When their agenda doesn't win, they don't believe in the judiciary, they don't believe in the legislative, and if the president is the problem, they don't believe

in the executive at that time. There are no commitments to beliefs, as we've all heard in politics, no permanent friends, no permanent enemies, only permanent interest So their interests and their beliefs and their philosophy is all about winning for them, and the moment that they're not winning or their philosophy can be offended at any moment, and that's where we are right now.

I am frustrated by the fact that we don't have something like this, we meaning Black folks, that represent our interests, because when we do. I talk about it all the time, the Black Agenda that was put forth by the Black to the Future Action Fund, by our dear sister Alicia Garza. It is like pulling teeth to get Black folks to support something that benefits our best interests. They want to know who wrote it, why they wrote it, When did they write it, Who's in charge?

around policy. I think on the left and look, listen, ignorance extends to no matter what political party, no matter what kills our economic background. Yeah, exactly, it's not partisan. However, I think on the right side you have people who are just pretty much flatlined. They're an easier group to coalesce. On the left, you have people who I would argue are a bit more curious about things, are not so easily manipulated, and is a much bigger tent of people,

and so we all represent our interest passionately. On the right, you you know, have something that's very complicated, like the Affordable Care Act, and you could throw out something like death panels and people will latch onto it. On the left, it's a little more intellectual. People have questions about that, and certainly when it comes to black folks, I think we because we have been so out of the process

for so long. We have been denied for so long that now that we're in this process, I think we've done an amazing job of working together and being a tight community and supporting each other and fighting for a lot of our rights in a much more wholesome and holistic way than the Republican Party, whose entire agenda is based on hate and hating other people who they think is taking something from them.

their face, they don't sound bad. But when you get into the nine hundred plus pages and they want to dismantle the Department of Justice and they want to ensure that a president can manipulate what's happening in the FBI and DOJ to target political opponents, that reads a little differently.

and then work toward implementation. Know that that pre existed, what the right existed. A lot of people know me as a candidate, but before as a candidate and while I was running for office and serving an office, I was part of yielding progressive pipelining. In my case, it was candidate development recruitment, and then after that it was gathering those same people that we saw and helped get elected to make sure that they were then pushing the

policies that would advance our goals. Tiffany, I agree with you from the standpoint that there's some is so much easier to organize people who are all similarly interested in the same thing, and that same thing we can all differ about. But I think that same thing is about We've had power for a very long time. There are threats to our access to that power. We exist to maintain our power. The Koch brothers are not gratuitous. The reason why they helped build a conservative pipeline on the

right is because they are the largest polluting industries. The coke industries and the subsidiaries that they own are among the largest polluters in the country. So it would make all the sense in the world to see them elect conservative who are anti EPA, who are judges who say, oh no, we're not going to be the big enforcement state. We are going to be the little, small government state where these issues are handled discreetly and not with a

big hammer like the EPA. They were acting in their interests. I'll say this, I think the left has fallen off on girding up our institutions that then advance our ideas. These but with the right has taught us is that they are willing to go all the way in and constitution be damned and courts be damned, it doesn't matter. We're willing to go all the way in to conserve

our power. The reason why the Left, I think, is a harder group to organize and coalesce around a single idea is because largely we're motivated by what our need is, just as the right is. Their need is to maintain the power that they've always had for us. Our need might be food on the table, gas in the tank, women, protections at the workplace, and all so with autonomy on their bodies. Black people's ability to go to schools are

then our ability to maintain those same institutions. When those institutions start producing black folks who then end up becoming successful parts of boards, elected officials, potentially presidents of the United States, and then they challenge our power. So what do we do? We go and delegitimize their institutions so that they can't continue to produce the folks who are going to threaten our power. The right is the right

is they're no more brilliant than we are. We did this first, they learned from us, and then we fell off the bus because our needs, as basically as they may be, became more divergent with the diversity of people in our coalition and the needs that each of us have had. And so we've got to get back to the basic yaw. And even if we were dealing with your point here, Angela, which is just amongst black folks,

how do we do this? My suggestion would be one we need to get a political operation in order that trains the candidates we want to see then can get those folks successfully elected. Right, So there's a whole political arm to this thing we have that.

And so if you are interested in advancing the left's agenda, then your interests must coincide with building an electoral operation that, by the way, doesn't just train, doesn't just elect, but has a hammer at the end of the day, which means if you don't do what you committed to doing, if you get in there and then you get sold out to the power interests that you were elected to dismantle, we are taking you out, all right, We're taking you So our enforcement mechanism has to exist on a level

that's bigger than the fact that we share the same skin tone. That, ain't it. We can be that right. You just gave examples of the Hampton woman who used to be you know, over heritage. They got them everywhere. I would venture to argue that the people who are being appointed to the board of trustees at Tennessee State University, who all may look like us, have a different interest in mind. They didn't get a pointer on the same that they that the others got booted out for no reason.

All right, So we got to be suspicious about those intentions. But we have the power to build those same structures on our side and maintain them on our side. We just have to decide that that's what we're in the

interest of doing. And instead, I think we all get freaked out by election cycle to election cycle, we have this big old threat of democracy diminishing over our heads, and we compromised our way out of what we want and sake of what we know, and sake of what we have available at this current h.

even their language comes from us. They didn't know what woke was ten years ago. They literally cut in paste and none of this stuff is new. We've already had to make America great again.

but I think we all have different approaches. It needs to be come to how to get there, But I know we got to move on and to I have a question for you because so, okay, we see this policy that the Heritage Foundation has putting out Project twenty twenty five. Let's say, worst case scenario, Donald Trump is elected and the Republicans have one of the chambers of Congress, the upper Chamber and the senator lower chamber in the House, how likely is it that this policy will start to

take shape? How likely will they be able to reimagine the executive branch of government because they can't do much without congressional approval.

a lot that they can do. He can do a lot with the executive order. If Donald Trump is elected again, he will dare the Supreme Court to challenge anything that he tries to get through via executive order. And I think it will be including things that should be reserved for legislation.

we want you in the fuck. Fuck the appointments. Excuse me, lord, please forgive me, y'all, forget the appointments. This is about We're going to go into these departments and staff up with conservatives who will effectuate our agenda regardless of who the president is. And if the president is the president of our choosing at this time, then you act in

their interest. If they're not, then you act in our interest, and you be a stop gap to whatever progressives may want to do, because now you're part of the wheel that keeps this machine running, and that that we have to all be terrified. Well we all want.

the way for strip clubs to serve alcohol. That bill also means places like Supernova in Seattle will have to cap fees that clubs can charge dancers, install panic buttons, and ensure security staffing requirements.

to strip clubs a few times. And in talking to these women, I did a documentary on strippers. When I was at BT, I followed around Buffy the Body. I followed around Buffy the Body, but everybody forgure.

And it just reminds you of the humanity. And in talking to strippers, they said, when you think about how they're treated because they have no you know, protection once they leave these clubs. And they said the people who treat them the worst are other women, that other women scrunt up their noses, they talk about them, they are disrespectful to them, which made my heartbreak. And so anytime I've gone to a strip club, I always I tip. I'm nice to the women. I you know, these are mothers,

a lot of them. They're going through a lot, and a lot of these state laws make it hard for the strippers because they have rules in place for companies to treat employees like contractors. They're not full time employees where they have benefits. So I am supportive of all strippers.

and that kind of thing. If it is going to be an industry, then why are we allowing it to continue to be an industry of shame and abuse where people can be taking advantage advantage of and treat it worse than dogs when we allow it to be a sanctioned operating industry. If it's going to be sanctioned and operated, then then at least hold these owners to account that they've got to treat these folks like people, like humans, like employees, like folks who are deserving of integrity in

the workplace. So you're not going to hear judgment pass

by me on any of it. I'm in full support of if it's going to be an industry, If the sex industry is going to be an industry, then don't let it be in the shadows of places where the CEOs and the lawyers and the doctors and bankers and all these folks get to go at the end of the night or the beginning of the morning, get you know, rocks off, and then it's all you're leaving these folks holding the bag literally and also all the consequences and dangers that come with it. Protect these folks in the

workplace period. If it ain't a workplace, then don't let it network.

are located, street scape, slow, and so forth. Almost every community I know of it, at least in the state of Florida, has public works departments and a public works director. These are the folks who largely work in the bellows of the government. They're not the folks you see on the television or the local access TV at the city

council and county council meetings. These folks work in the government building and so that means any citizen by and large is able to go make an appointment, sit down with, share your ideas, raise concerns with. You know, we were talking on another subject about careerists. These are the careersts. These are the people who spend their life's work understanding

the rules and how to make a city function. And I would strongly recommend a lot of people I learned when I was in municipal government just you know, they had concerns and questions they just didn't know the way. They didn't know who to go to. They thought they had to meet with the mayor, or the city council or the city manager in order to advance that idea. And the truth is you can meet with those people. It may take you a little longer to get there.

But with these other career service employees, it's their life and they it would be their pleasure. I think I could say it with the fullness of my heart, it would be their pleasure to sit down with people who live in those communities, hear from you about what you want to have changed, and then go to work on your behalf and be very responsible to you all the way through the process. So thanks again for the question.

And I think there's a really simple answer to it, which is to go see some of these folks, your public works directors, your facilities management folks, the folks who sit in your small business development offices, sit down with them and let them hear your concerns. I think you'd be surprised how response did they'd be.

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I don't love. But Requiem, which I think is on it is the first star on the album. In it it raps it is not but it also raps the album. And I probably love it the most because it reminds me of another favorite song I have the don't laugh

at Me, y'all. The Battle Ham of the Republic is actually one of my favorite songs, and it was written by two abolitionists who were huge supporters of the Union Army during the Civil War, and it just her manifesto there her reclaiming her time if you will, if you're maxing water is her resistance to being put in a box and defined by a genre. It's just a breakout

for me, and it's what we do. We just change the game and listen to it, vibe off of it, but also try to pay a little close attention to what the meanings are behind each one of these songs. Is their intentional and I think it's just brilliant.

up if y'all can. I would love to see y'all and definitely to convince this young man with the three point seven cumulative GPA who loves computer science to get in there. That's an open opportunity for you all to give me him on the spot.