this is not a normal election and this is not your father's Republican party it's now Donald Trump's party and if he is elected the consequences will be catastrophic Trump acolytes have an entire plan called project 20125 that outlines priorities for the first 180 days of a new Trump Administration and it's not hyperbole to say that project 2025 would dismantle democracy as we know ITR itics are calling it the fascist Playbook and it should be one of the reasons if not the reason that you vote this November what's at stake here is not just a republican
agenda versus a democratic agenda as in years past but democracy itself and you don't need to take anyone's word for it you can read project 2025 for yourself the far rights blueprints spans two volumes over 800 pages and it details comprehensively the Republican strategy to remake the executive branch concentrating power solely in the hands of the president but as the far right is well aware this project can't proceed without restructuring our government's foundations without eliminating the legal obstacles and checks on the president like for example the Department of Justice which is why there's a whole
chapter in Project 2025 about the doj in his most recent piece the nation's Ellie Mall highlights how how devastating project 202's assault on the Department of Justice could be Ellie writes quote if project 2025 is essentially a conservative Heist plot then the chapter on the doj is where the plotters detail how they intend to disable the security cameras and flood lights allowing them to operate under the cover of Darkness incapacitating the Department of Justice is exactly that knocking out the security cameras Trump's problem with the doj is not as he claims that it is a
bloated bureaucracy but rather that as currently structured it won't carry out maa's bidding Mall goes on to explain quote project 2025 proposes transforming the Civil Rights division of the doj into a tool to fight for white supremacy instead of against it it aims to do this by using the division to prosecute institutions and organizations that promote diversity as violating civil rights and equal protection of whites and it's the law iCal conclusion of the conservative assault on affirmative action and Dei programs project 2025 is telling us exactly how the conservatives plan to take away the rights
of women people of color and the lgbtq community I beg the American people to believe them for more on this I am joined by Ellie Mall himself columnist and Justice correspondent for the nation he's also a fellow with the type media center and the author of the book allow me to retort a black guys Guide to the Constitution Ellie we touched about this very briefly in the introduction but can you please give us the tldr for how project 2025 plans to restructure and repurpose the justice department yeah so project 2025 isn't a plan it's a
Manifesto It's a Manifesto for how Trump's ruling hun intends to take over the legal structures of our nation and it's really focused on the doj because remember folks the doj hurt Trump right the doj stood up to Trump and I say that having almost no respect for mustache twirling racist Jeff sessions but when it came time to do the right thing Jeff session did the right thing and recused himself I have almost no respect for Bill Grimace bar but when it came time to do the right thing after Trump lost the election bill bar would
not do Trump's bidding and would not file lawsuits against you know the voting machines and smartmatic and what have you right so Trump will not have forgotten that and project 2025 Manifesto is his plan to remake the doj into an organization that will do its bidding right and the kind of key way to do that I mean look the the entire uh uh section is basically like a Seinfeld episode of Festivus like it's just an airing of grievances that they have against like can we talk about one of those grievances can we can we talk
about one of those grievances there are many you're right um but one that I found particularly troubling is that project 2025 proposes to redirect the department of Justice's Focus from white collar crimes to violent crimes and I thought this was really interesting given that many of the crimes with which Trump and as you put it his hun have been charged are often those white collar crimes so what do you make of this shift is this self-serving what's the subtext here right no they're they're trying to keep Trump's family out of jail with this stuff because
one of the other things that they do not only are they saying that the goj should focus on violent crime not tax fraud bank fraud charity fraud all the stuff that trumps and his people are accused of right it also says that the doj needs to fire lawyers the department they want the Department of Justice to fire the 300 or so lawyers that work for the FBI I I it's why do they do that well because the lawyers who work for the FBI are the ones that tell the FBI what they can and cannot do
and project 2025 doesn't like that they don't want to tell the FBI what they can't do they want the FBI to take their orders directly from a political appointee that is beholding to their attorney general and that's the other thing that's I think most scary about this idea right because if you look at who the Republicans are talking about for attorney general they're talking about people like Steven Miller they're talking about people like Mike Davis they're talking about people who think that the wrong turn for this country happened when Lee surrendered at aamax right and
they want to take us back into that antibellum way of thinking and that's who next time around Trump is going to appoint as his AG a loyalist racist as opposed to just a general racist well let's talk about some prospective attorney generals you mentioned Mike Lee and Steven Miller both Veterans of the Trump White House and Mike Lee is now the senator from Utah a recent slate article suggests that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is also in the mix here and Paxton has a really interesting record um he was indicted on security frauds charges that
were later dropped when he agreed to do community service and to pay restitution and he also uh said that he would bring legal action against Mercy Room Physicians if they performed abortions on Texas women who were in The throws of miscarriage so how does he figure into this and what would the doj look like under his leadership well Melissa personally I've never been arrested or charged or convicted of a crime but I have heard that when you were arrested charged and convicted of a crime when you were a felon you kind of like to hang
out with other felons right you get you feel a little more comfortable with your own people when you are convicted to hang out with other cons and and that's that's Ken Paxton right like that's what Ken Paxton brings to the table that criminality that Trump loves so much so yeah he's one of the people who's in the mix for for AG uh Chris kobach the attorney G basically if you have been a republican lawyer who has attacked people of color the LGBT community or women trying to access Reproductive Rights Trump wants you to send him
a cover letter right is going to take your call about the and interview you to be the next Attorney General of this nation Ellie mall so much in these 800 Pages we didn't even have a chance to talk about the comto ACT but thank you so much for giving us the tldr all Every American should be looking into this thank you