With the start of the 2024 Republican National Convention less than a week away, Donald Trump's campaign and the Republican National Committee (RNC) have been making an effort to soften somewhat the language in the party's platform.
But during a Tuesday, July 9 panel discussion on CNN, Axios' Hans Nichols emphasized that regardless of their rhetoric, Trump and his supporters are pushing an agenda that is hard-right in its social conservatism.
Nichols told host Dana Bash, CNN's Kaitlan Collins and National Public Radio's (NPR) Ayesha Roscoe, "I love talking about party platforms, but we all know they don't really matter. They matter for about a week before and after the actual convention, and the rest of the time, you have to look at what presidents are actually spending their time talking about and what their staff are preparing or doing….. They're very interested in rolling back many things the Biden Administration has done all across the board in ways that none of us have really fully priced in."
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Bash noted that Trump has tried to "distance himself" from Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation's lengthy, detailed blueprint for a second Trump term.
Project 2025, Bash told the panel, has "a lot of very strident things in it."
Collins argued, "I think Trump distancing himself from it is because he doesn't want anyone taking credit for anything he is doing…. And also, his campaign has tried really hard to do that. I don't think the idea that none of this will be put in place if he takes office is realistic."
Collins added, "Obviously, these are people who worked in his administration and could be there."
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Watch the full video below or at this link.
