#RussVought laid out how his think tank is crafting the #legal rationale for invoking the #InsurrectionAct, a #law that gives the president broad power to use the #military for #domestic law enforcement. The Washington Post previously reported the issue was at the top of the Center for Renewing America’s priorities.
#Trump #Project2025 #HeritageFoundation #extremism #fascism #authoritarianism #tyranny #autocracy
“We want to be able to shut down the *riots* & not have the legal community or the #defense community come in & say, ‘That’s an inappropriate use of what you’re trying to do,’” he said. #RussVought held up the summer 2020 unrest following #GeorgeFloyd’s murder as an example of when #Trump ought to have had the ability to deploy the #ArmedForces but was stymied.
#Project2025 #extremism #fascism #authoritarianism #tyranny #autocracy
#RussVought’s preparations for a future #Trump admin involve building a “shadow” Office of #Legal Counsel, he told the gathered supporters in May 2023. That office, part of the #DOJ, advises the president on the scope of their powers. Vought made clear he wants the office to help Trump steamroll the kind of internal opposition he faced in his first term.
#Project2025 #extremism #fascism #authoritarianism #tyranny #autocracy
Another priority, acc/to #RussVought, was to “defund” certain independent #FederalAgencies & demonize career #CivilServants, which include #scientists & subject matter #experts. #Project2025’s plan to revive #ScheduleF, an attempt to make it easier to fire a large swath of government workers who currently have civil service protections, aligns w/Vought’s vision.
#Trump #extremism #fascism #authoritarianism #tyranny #autocracy
“We want the bureaucrats to be traumatically affected,” #RussVought said. “When they wake up in the morning, we want them to not want to go to work because they are increasingly viewed as the villains. We want their funding to be shut down so that the #EPA can't do all of the rules against *our* #energy industry because they have no bandwidth financially to do so.
“We want to put them in trauma.”
In this private speech delivered in 2023, #RussVought described his goal of defunding & debasing #FederalAgencies under a potential second #Trump admin.
#Project2025 #HeritageFoundation #extremism #fascism #authoritarianism #tyranny #autocracy
#law #democracy #Election2024 #VoteBlue #HarrisWalz2024
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBH9TmeJN_M
Vought also revealed the extent of the #CenterForRenewingAmerica’s role in whipping up #RightWing #panic ahead of the 2022 midterms over an increase in #asylum-seekers crossing at the #border.
In Feb 2022, #Arizona AG Mark Brnovich released a legal opinion claiming the state was under “invasion” by violent cartels & could invoke #war powers to deploy #NationalGuard troops to its southern border. The legally dubious “invasion” theory became a potent #Republican talking point.
#RussVought said in the 2023 speech that he & Cuccinelli, the fmr top #DHS ofcl for #Trump, personally lobbied Brnovich on the effort. “We said, ‘Look, you can write your own opinion, but here’s a draft opinion of what this should look like,’” Vought said.
The nonpartisan watchdog group American Oversight later obtained an email in which Vought pitched the “invasion” framework to Brnovich.
…In the event #Trump loses, #RussVought called for #Republican leaders of states such as Florida & Texas to “create red-state sanctuaries” by “kicking out all the feds as much as they possibly can.”
The 2 speeches delivered by Vought, taken together, offer an unvarnished look at the animating ideology & political worldview of a key figure in the #MAGA movement.
#Project2025 #extremism #fascism #authoritarianism #tyranny #autocracy
