Allies of President-elect Donald Trump have taken steps to scan government workers' emails and text messages in the first step of a mass purge that has political spectators admittedly scared .
The conservative think tank behind Project 2025 — the political agenda Trump denied any knowledge of as a candidate — has already begun hunting for liberals within the federal government's rank-and-file on his behalf, CNN reported Monday.
"The Heritage Foundation has sent tens of thousands of records requests to federal agencies asking for information that they believe will help them find liberals and people who might be disloyal for Donald Trump," said reporter Steve Contorno.
"That includes asking for information about programs related to diversity, equity and inclusion that has been vilified by the right, but also asking for the text messages and emails sent by employees looking for terms such as Elon Musk or climate change."
Anchor Dana Bash professed she was stunned by the report that the Heritage Foundation was pursuing a key tenet of Project 2025 despite Trump's repeated disavowals of its contents.
"The Trump campaign repeated over and over, it had nothing to do with them," she said. "Going through their texts and emails? This is intense stuff."
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"It's chilling stuff," political reporter and CNN panelist Astead Herndon replied. "I find it kind of, frankly, frightening."
Herndon raised specific concerns about Republicans' targeting the "dog whistle" of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion policies that protect inclusivity within the federal government.
Congressional correspondent Manu Raju said he was disturbed that the Heritage Foundation and fellow conservative groups were targeting policy experts politicians rely upon to pass sound legislation.
"You need those people because they can implement very technical, complicated policies," Raju said. "[A purge] could have a real negative impact on actually implementing critical programs for the American people."
Panelist Vivian Salama, a political reporter for the Wall Street Journal, then delved into Trump's own plans to trigger a purge of disloyal generals via executive order.
It's an idea that prompted Bash to say, "Wow."
"Trump has made no secret of the fact that he wanted to remove what he calls the 'woke' generals and others," Salama replied. "They have been very vague about it, and this is what is so scary."
