President Joe Biden: Project 2025 attacks civil rights. Here’s what the plan says
Project 2025 is an aggressive attack on civil rights, President Joe Biden warned in a Monday speech, referencing a plan from a Washington-based conservative think tank that has been a hot topic this election cycle.
Biden was in Austin on Monday for event at the Lyndon B. Johnson presidential library to mark the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act. Much of the speech focused on plans to reform the U.S. Supreme Court, but Biden also addressed the Heritage Foundation’s 922 page wish list for the next presidential administration.
“They’re planning another onslaught attacking civil rights in America,” Biden said.
The plan is self-described as “a menu of solutions to the border crisis, inflation, a stagnant economy, and rampant crime,” as well as a plan to “take on China, fix our schools, and support families.”
“But most importantly, it dismantles the unaccountable Deep State, taking power away from Leftist elites and giving it back to the American people and duly-elected President,” the project’s website reads.
A spokesperson for The Heritage Foundation did not return emails seeking comment on Biden’s remarks.
Former President Donald Trump has distanced himself from the plan, and the group’s Project 2025 director Paul Dans, is stepping down.
So what did Biden say about Project 2025? And what does the policy playbook say?
What did President Joe Biden say about Project 2025?
Biden called Project 2025 an “extreme movement and agenda” as he addressed an auditorium full of guests at the presidential library.
The plan would aggressively attack diversity, equity and inclusion “across all aspects of American life,” Biden said, adding that the “extreme MAGA movement” proposes ending birthright citizenship.
He again referenced the plan as he outlined his plan to overhaul the U.S. Supreme Court, including 18-year term limits, a code of conduct for justices and a constitutional amendment to address presidential immunity.
“By the way, these guys mean it,” he said during his remarks. “These guys mean it. Project 2025 is real. They mean it.”
What does Project 2025 say?
Project 2025 outlines policy recommendations for the president, as well as a lengthy list of federal departments and agencies. Its website disputes the idea that the policy agenda would “end civil rights.”
“Project 2025’s Mandate for Leadership calls for respecting the civil rights of all Americans, including those who have been censored by the government or had it weaponized against them,” the website reads.
It includes policy recommendations on everything from LGBTQ rights, education and immigration to foreign relations, abortion and taxes.
Biden said Project 2025 would attack civil rights by targeting diversity, equity and inclusion and eliminating birthright citizenship — the granting of citizenship to those born in the United States guaranteed by the 14th amendment.
Trump has called for the end of birthright citizenship, but Project 2025’s section about the Department of Homeland Security does not mention birthright citizenship.
Diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives have been targeted by Republicans. Among the Project 2025 proposals related to DEI:
▪ “End of divisive, race-based, anti-American propaganda like DEI in the federal workforce.” This includes the elimination of DEI offices and positions in some federal departments. In Texas, lawmakers have restricted DEI initiatives at public universities. The governor’s office has also instructed state agencies to not use DEI initiatives in hiring, according to The Texas Tribune.
▪ The terms “sexual orientation and gender identity” and “diversity, equity, and inclusion” among others related to gender and reproductive health should be deleted from every “federal rule, agency regulation, contract, grant, regulation, and piece of legislation that exists.”
▪ The next president should work with Congress to “prohibit accreditation agencies from leveraging their Title IV gatekeeper role to mandate that educational institutions adopt diversity, equity, and inclusion policies.”
▪ The next president should “issue an executive order banning, and Congress should pass a law prohibiting the federal government from using taxpayer dollars to fund, all critical race theory training.”
The plan states that “even though numerous federal laws prohibit discrimination based on notable immutable characteristics such as race and sex, the Biden Administration — through the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division and other federal entities — has enshrined affirmative discrimination in all aspects of its operations under the guise of ‘equity.’”
It calls diversity, equity and inclusion offices “the vehicles for this unlawful discrimination.”
In response, the Department of Justice should spearhead “an initiative demonstrating the federal government’s commitment to nondiscrimination” and use its Civil Rights Division to “to investigate and prosecute all state and local governments,institutions of higher education, corporations, and any other private employers who are engaged in discrimination in violation of constitutional and legal requirements.”
