Ex-Project 2025 Director Blasts Heritage Foundation President Over ‘Violent Rhetoric,’ Calls on JD Vance to Distance Himself
(Francis Chung/POLITICO via AP Images)
Paul Dans, the former director of the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, blasted Heritage President Kevin Roberts over his use of “violent rhetoric” in a new interview, even going so far as to call on Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance to withdraw the foreword he wrote for Roberts’s forthcoming book.
In an interview with The Washington Post, Dans criticized Roberts’s comments from this summer about how “we are in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be.”
“If we’re going to ask the left to tone it down, we have to do our part as well. There’s no place for this sort of violent rhetoric and bellicose taunting, especially in light of the fact that President Trump has now been subject to not one but two assassination attempts,” Dans told the Post.
Project 2025, which was conceived as a staffing and policy resource for the next Republican administration, became a lightning rod in this year’s election amid Democratic attacks on its proposals. According to the Post, “Dans and Roberts disagreed over the direction of Project 2025, and Dans blames Roberts for much of the backlash it has received. He said he warned Roberts against provocative media interviews and hyperbolic language, especially after the Trump campaign repeatedly disavowed Project 2025 and warned participants to stop talking to reporters about plans for a second Trump administration.”
“There’s really no place for this level of rhetoric, let alone from the head of an august think tank. And by doing that, he’s [Roberts] essentially besmirched the professional reputations of everyone involved in Project 2025,” said Dans.
Vance wrote the foreword for Roberts’s forthcoming book Dawn’s Early Light: Taking Back Washington to Save America, the publication of which was delayed until after election day amid the Democratic campaign against Project 2025. Dans suggested to the Post that Vance should withdraw his contribution.
A spokesman for the Heritage Foundation reacted to Dans’s comments in a statement asserting that “Any attempt to mischaracterize Dr. Roberts’ comments as supportive of violence is grotesque and completely contrary to the observation he was making.”
For his part, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has repeatedly distanced himself from Project 2025, even submitting that “some of the things they’re saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal.”
