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The Intercept
2 days ago
- Politics
- The Intercept
Project 2025 Data Leak Shows a Paul Ingrassia Calling for Test for Voting and Halting Immigration
In 2024, as Donald Trump's reelection campaign gathered steam, the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 had its eye on staffing a new Republican administration. The initiative, which was designed around crafting an agenda for an incoming Trump White House, put out a call for aspiring administration officials. The application, including multiple-choice questions and open-ended queries, sought to place would-be Trump apparatchiks on the political spectrum and suss out their political priorities. One of the people who filled the form out entered a name that would echo through the first six months of Trump's new term: Paul Ingrassia. Ingrassia is set to land a powerful job as head of the Justice Department's Office of Special Counsel. Now, pending a Senate hearing this week, Ingrassia is set to land a powerful job as head of the Justice Department's Office of Special Counsel. Among other responsibilities related to the federal workforce, the office is supposed to protect whistleblowers and keep partisan politics out of the civil service. For Ingrassia's critics, he would be just the wrong person to lead OSC. The Project 2025 questionnaire answers given under Ingrassia's name would appear to bolster the case that the applicant's primary concern is loyalty to Trump and sharp-elbowed partisan politics. The responses include allusions to severely cutting down federal agencies because of their 'toxic ideologies'; halting immigration; and imposing a new test for voting. (Ingrassia did not respond to a request for comment.) A leaked dataset of the Project 2025 application questionnaires was released in June by the group Distributed Denial of Secrets, or DDoSecrets. An analysis of the leaked data showed that more than 13,000 people had filled out the applications. (Heritage did not respond to a request for comment.) DDoSecrets redacted the full entries for applicants but provided The Intercept with an unredacted version. The contact information and other personal data included in the Project 2025 file matched Paul Ingrassia's information. On July 24, Ingrassia will face a confirmation hearing in the Senate — and good government groups are opposing his bid. 'As head of OSC, the special counsel should be someone who respects federal workers, who will treat them fairly and without bias,' a group of 24 civil society groups led by the Project on Government Oversight wrote in an open letter to Senators opposing Ingrassia's nomination. 'The special counsel must be a person who will exercise their duties in a nonpartisan manner, a person of honesty and integrity who has the necessary experience to fulfill such an important role.' 'Paul Ingrassia is none of these.' Ingrassia has advocated for the arrest of the president's political enemies, said that Democrats are a threat to democracy, and labeled Republicans who disagree with him as RINOs — a derisive acronym meaning 'Republicans in Name Only.' In the Project 2025 questionnaire filled out under the name Paul Ingrassia, the respondent agreed that 'the President should be able to advance his/her agenda through the bureaucracy without hinderance from unelected federal officials.' A response to a prompt about which political issue he was most passionate about and why included a long list of pet projects. 'I'm passionate about restructuring the administrative state, condensing the size and scope of the various bureaucratic agencies, defunding many of them, given how destructive they and their toxic ideologies have been on the American way of life; reform and shut down many of the intelligence agencies; fully upend the justice department; reform the courts; redesign Washington, D.C., and build an even better city in its wake,' the Project 2025 applicant wrote. The questionnaire also asked respondents to 'name one living public policy figure whom you greatly admire and why.' The response — Trump and Pat Buchanan — lacked an explanation. When asked to 'name one person, past or present, who has most influenced the development of your political philosophy,' the data under Paul Ingrassia's name said 'Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Napoleon, Donald Trump.' The answer to the question about what issues the applicant was passionate about said: I'm also very passionate about immigration — specifically, ending birthright citizenship, deporting all illegals and thinking about economic, other ways, to incentivize them to self-deport, building the wall and militarizing it with state of the art technology, personnel; instating a moratorium on all immigration, and revising the tests for citizenship, voting, other basic privileges of American life. Long before his stint in government, Ingrassia was a right-wing firebrand. A 30-year-old lawyer and right-wing commentator, he has referred to himself as 'Trump's favorite Substacker' and spent years writing articles praising Trump. He has ties to far-right figures and those with fringe beliefs. Last summer, Ingrassia appeared at a rally organized by far-right provocateur Nick Fuentes, whom Ingrassia has advocated for in the past. He also has a relationship with Timothy Hale-Cusanelli, a January 6 rioter who the Justice Department called a 'Nazi sympathizer.' Ingrassia's social media has included 9/11 conspiracy theories and support for Alex Jones, who gained notoriety for denying children were murdered at the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012. He graduated from Cornell Law in 2022. In 2023, Ingrassia worked for McBride Law, a firm that represented far-right influencers Andrew and Tristan Tate when they were facing allegations of rape and human trafficking in Romania and the United Kingdom. The firm filed a defamation lawsuit against one of their accusers that summer. (The Tate brothers have consistently denied these allegations. Proceedings are ongoing in both countries.) Ingrassia was not legally allowed to practice or market himself as a lawyer at the time; the firm referred to him as an Ivy League-educated associate attorney working on the case. He sat for the bar in July 2023 and was admitted to practice in New York on July 30, 2024. After McBride, he worked as a communications director for the conservative nonprofit National Constitutional Law Union and occasionally wrote articles for the right-wing site Gateway Pundit. He left both positions after taking a job in January as a presidential liaison to the Department of Justice in January. After a few months, however, he was reassigned from the Justice Department to another agency amid reports of administration infighting. Reporting from ABC suggested his advocacy for the department to hire John Pierce, his old boss at the National Constitutional Law Union, played a role. Pierce represented many January 6 rioters. During his time as a criminal defense attorney, Pierce failed to show up to court, sent in a co-counsel who wasn't authorized to practice law, forgot how many clients he had, and was fired by multiple defendants. According to ABC, Ingrassia wanted Pierce to run the pardon office at the Justice Department. Now, with his elevation to the Office of Special Counsel, Ingrassia could be back at the Justice Department.
American Press
16-07-2025
- Politics
- American Press
Jim Beam column:Independent thinkers are rare
U.S. Rep. Don Bacon, a Republican from Nebraska, is leaving Congress like others who are frustrated about the failure of members of Congress to compromise for the good of the country.(Photo courtesy of Nebraska Public Media). Moderates are leaving Congress as fast as chickens would run from an open coop. U.S. Rep. Don Bacon, a Nebraska Republican who said his fifth term would be his last, is among the latest. The Advocate last week ran two columns talking about moderates leaving Congress. Kathleen Parker wrote about U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis, a Republican from North Carolina, announcing he wouldn't seek re-election after President Donald Trump threatened to support primary challengers to any Republican who dared oppose his Big Beautiful Bill Act. Parker said a lengthening line of dropouts that GOP members like to call RINOs — Republicans in Name Only — have left office since Trump first became president. Steve Roberts in his column said, 'While Trump had promised to protect Medicaid funding, Tillis argued that his bill would eventually deprive almost 12 million Americans of health care coverage, including 663,000 in Tillis' home state. Tillis joined all 47 Democrats and Republican Sens. Rand Paul and Susan Collins in voting against Trump's BBB Act. Vice President JD Vance cast a tie-breaking vote to pass the bill. The Nebraska Examiner quoted Bacon when he announced he was leaving Congress who said, 'I hope to be remembered for … I'm a Christian, first … American, second … somewhere down here being a Republican. It's about doing the right thing .. I'm a traditional conservative at heart.' Like Louisiana's Republican U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy of Baton Rouge, Bacon cast a pivotal vote for President Joe Biden's bipartisan infrastructure bill that put him at odds with Trump. After the vote, Trump criticized Bacon during a May 2022 visit to Nebraska, calling him 'bad news.' His political team worked for years to recruit potential GOP primary challengers. The Examiner said, 'But Bacon kept winning and continued to publicly spar with Trump…' Bacon did vote for the BBB Act and was criticized for it by some national and Nebraska public officials. NBC News in a story about Bacon's retirement from Congress said he spent 30 years in the Air Force and specialized in intelligence matters. He is a retired brigadier general who did four tours of duty in Iraq and also spent time in Afghanistan. The NBC report said Bacon is one of the few sitting Republicans willing to publicly criticize Trump who has a reputation for retaliating against his enemies and ending their political careers. Bacon insisted that neither the public feuds with Trump nor the violent threats he and his wife have faced had any impact on his decision to leave Congress. He said he didn't have the 'fire in my belly' for another congressional run. The news about Bacon caught my attention because, like me, he is a strong defender of Ukraine in its war with Russia. He has a photograph on the wall of his meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. And he has consistently been critical of Trump's handling of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and Trump's 'appeasement' of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth reportedly ordered a pause in sending a shipment of missiles and ammunition to Ukraine and Bacon said whoever ordered the weapons pause should be fired. Bacon said, 'If Ukraine falls, the world's a more dangerous place. I really don't understand why President Trump doesn't see that. And if Ukraine goes down, Moldova will definitely fall. I think Georgia is in trouble.' Although he said he was embarrassed to say it, Bacon said, 'President Trump has done worse than Biden (on Ukraine). I don't like it. He seems to have a blind spot with Putin. I don't know what purpose it serves to withhold weapons to Ukraine and not see that Putin is the invader.' Trump has since resumed weapons for Ukraine, but the delay has been costly in terms of lives lost and damage in Ukraine. Bacon added, 'I do believe that if I was president, I'd be trying to provide Ukraine with every weapon they needed to convince Putin he has no chance to win.' He added that he wished GOP Vice President JD Vance 'saw the Russian threat a little better.' Tillis confirmed where this country is at the moment when he said, 'In Washington over the last few years, it's become increasingly evident that leaders who are willing to embrace bipartisanship, compromise and demonstrate independent thinking are becoming an endangered species.' Jim Beam, the retired editor of the American Press, has covered people and politics for more than six decades. Contact him at 337-515-8871 or
Chicago Tribune
02-07-2025
- Politics
- Chicago Tribune
Letters: Why centrism doesn't have enough bite to make an impact
Regarding the editorial 'Is centrism in the Democratic Party dead? Let's hope not' (June 27), the Tribune Editorial Board asks: 'Is the primary electorate simply unreceptive to centrist points of view?' For both Democrats and Republicans, the answer is a bit more complicated than 'no.' Americans can identify radicals on both sides but have little power to prevent the natural cause: the pendulum swing of the two-party system. In 2022, a Pew Research Center survey found nearly half of younger adults said they wished there were more parties to choose from. Gerrymandering from both political parties intentionally demolishes that possibility. In 2024, Ballotpedia found that only 30% of elections in the United States that year were contested. The two-party system puts political ideology on a two-way street. Political ideology has never been a two-way street. Having only one more political party is not sufficient. The alternating control of government from one party to the other ups the ante each time. Suddenly, centrist policies don't have enough bite to be impactful or the other party dismantled something while in power and the government becomes a tool for vengeance. But how do politicians distinguish themselves from the alternative party? Centrist ideology can make a politician look like a bending branch in the wind. (Consider 'Republicans in name only,' or RINOs). In a primary, politicians will need to do some serious pendulum swinging to appear 'committed' to their beliefs. When politicians can gain no more from their current position, they'll swing the pendulum further. So not only is the two-party system creating radicals, but it's also creating cyclical ideology that follows the top party mobster. Values and morals are now fully flexible and dependent on the situation. The two most well-known party flips happened during the Civil War and the civil rights movement. A Republican today will not be a Republican in 50 years. A Republican today isn't even a Republican from 15 years ago — political flips on foreign intervention are obvious for both parties. President George Washington saw this coming. In his farewell address, he said two political parties would become 'potent engines' by which 'unprincipled men' will subvert the power of the people to serve themselves and dismantle our liberties. Solutions to this conundrum are complex, but Americans can start by identifying their values and morals and refusing to bend them to the whim of parties. To restore liberty, voters must reject the flip-flopping from the 'unprincipled' people in has all this hatred come from? The teachings of Christianity, the predominant religion in the U.S., are based on simple premises: Love your neighbor as you love yourself, do unto others as you would have others do unto you, God is love and God so loved the world. Nowhere in its teachings are carve-outs for any category of people — such as by race or homeland or lovers or by who or how they worship. Yet, daily, the media are full of stories of how much whole groups of Christians detest certain other groups of people based solely on those factors. I have yet to read those Christians' reasoning, intellectual or biblical, for this hatred, only of its spread. Almost all religions around the world worship God. Who's to say those other faiths are wrong and only Christianity is right? Remember 'God so loved the world' — the whole world and not just the Protestant American portion of it. Shouldn't we Christians try a little harder to emulate our God and love the world — and its peoples?A Tribune reader thinks we shouldn't post the Ten Commandments in our public schools, because kids already know they shouldn't kill people. ('Christianity in schools,' June 28). Posting the Ten Commandments is not some new crazy idea that Christians have thought up to try to indoctrinate our children in Christian teaching. Moral education was always considered foundational in our children's education, and that is very hard to do without teaching about God. Without God, right and wrong are just opinions. As for the Constitution, if it wasn't for Christianity, there wouldn't be a United States of America. You might not get this from reading the history of the American Revolution. Read the people who were part of the revolution: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe, John Adams and countless others. The Constitution isn't against Christianity in public schools and life. It's against the United States having an official Christian church as part of our government, which we can see in the major federal spending measure works its way through Congress, we had hoped children from families with limited incomes would be spared. Unfortunately, the proposed cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program pose a considerable negative impact. The proposed requirements for eligibility mean a higher likelihood that children will fall through the cracks. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that 2 million people are slated to lose SNAP benefits if the budget, in its current form, is passed. With the SNAP cuts, more children in America face ineligibility for the free school breakfast and lunch programs offered in many districts. Few states around the country offer a universal program in which every kid qualifies for free meals regardless of their family's income. During the summer months, the kids who normally rely on school nutrition programs are at risk of going hungry. My organization Islamic Relief USA is trying to prevent that crisis by partnering with organizations around the country to administer summer nutrition programs. A more effective strategy would be to have a federal solution to fighting child hunger. The patchwork approach of charitable organizations stepping in goes only so far. It's too small to fill a growing Tribune coverage appears to promote a fiction that the owner of the Huntley Trump Truth store is some sort of local hero, it seems time to try to set that record a bit straight. My husband and I are Huntley residents. We appreciate the work the village does to maintain a clean, quiet and welcoming environment for all citizens. But for months last year, navigating past this store was akin to driving through a cheap carnival show that lacked only a Tilt-A-Whirl and a funnel cake stand. The flapping flags, banners and questionable blow-up dolls placed on the edge of the street were extremely distracting, and I saw drivers swerving to avoid them. And for clarity, that stretch is not some quiet country road. It's a very busy and high-speed commercial route. We live in a society that places rational guardrails for all residents' safety. You can't drive 90 mph through a schoolyard, you can't yell 'fire' in a crowded theater, and you can't put things in a roadway that could distract and endanger drivers. But apparently being asked to not endanger fellow citizens and respect the rules of her landlord's property was a bridge too far for her compliance. Rules for thee, not for me. This store owner's actions represent nothing but disrespect for her place of business and the community she chose to do business in. Disrespect doesn't equal heroism. I hope she can find a new place with rules and regulations she might find worthy of her respect. Many of us in Huntley send out thanks to the village for trying to resolve this unfortunate situation in a way that protects and benefits all its constituents.
Int'l Business Times
20-06-2025
- Politics
- Int'l Business Times
Fox Host Accuses Vance, Top Officials of Pressuring Trump to 'Abandon His Principles' Amid Iran Tensions: 'Let Trump Be Trump!'
Fox News host Mark Levin has accused Vice President JD Vance and other top Trump administration officials of pressuring the president to 'abandon his principles' amid tensions over the Israel-Iran war. A Fox News host has accused Vice President JD Vance and other top Trump administration officials of pressuring the president to "abandon his principles" as President Donald Trump debates aiding Israel's war with Iran. Mark Levin took to X Friday morning to share a long tweet, in which he questioned the goals of several prominent officials, including Vance, U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. "Is Witkoff negotiating for something less? What's JD's role? It doesn't take 5 minutes for Iran to say, 'we surrender unconditionally' let alone 2 weeks," Levin said, referring to Trump's plan to allow time for Israel and Iran to come to a resolve on their own before intervening. LET TRUMP BE TRUMP!We got our answer. Iran says no unconditional surrender. Again. And again. And again. They cheat and lie and kill. They're TERRORISTS!Is Witkoff negotiating for something less? What's JD's role? It doesn't take 5 minutes for Iran to say, 'we surrender… — Mark R. Levin (@marklevinshow) June 20, 2025 The broadcaster continued to accuse "fifth column isolationists" of trying to get Israel to surrender rather than Iran. "They've lied about Iran's nuclear program. Tulsi Gabbard has some explaining to do . They're a damnable cabal of lunatics, many of whom are antisemites, completely out of step with the overwhelming majority of Americans - of all walks of life and political affiliations - who want Iran's nuke sites destroyed, as the real polls show," Levin stated. According to a Harvard-Harris poll from last week, 85% of Americans do not want Iran to develop nuclear weapons. However, only 16% of Americans want the U.S. to get involved in the Israel-Iran conflict, a poll by YouGov found. Levin asserted that it is in "our national security interest and our own survival to stop these bastards cold." "During the 8-years I served in the Reagan administration, there were RINOs in the administration constantly trying to influence and change the president's agenda and press him to abandon his principles. Others actively sought to undermine him with leaks to the media. I see the same happening now," he said. "Let Trump be Trump! We've a great and historic president. Enough with the fake MAGA demagogues and grifters," Levin continued. The possibility of the U.S. getting involved in the Middle East conflict has sparked a harsh divide among Trump supporters. On Tuesday, Vance defended the president in a post on X saying he "has shown remarkable restraint in keeping our military's focus on protecting our troops and protecting our citizens." Look, I'm seeing this from the inside, and am admittedly biased towards our president (and my friend), but there's a lot of crazy stuff on social media, so I wanted to address some things directly on the Iran issue: First, POTUS has been amazingly consistent, over 10 years, that… — JD Vance (@JDVance) June 17, 2025 Vance previously stated that he would "absolutely not" support using U.S. military power in Iran during a 2023 interview with CBS News . However, Vance said his stance would change if Iran were to attack the U.S. first. Meanwhile, Trump dismissed a previous claim from Gabbard, who testified in March that Iran was not building a nuclear weapon. The national intelligence director has reportedly been sidelined recently from key discussions over the Israel-Iran war, NBC News reported. Gabbard is not the only top official allegedly left out of the deliberations. According to a report by the Washington Post , Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has also reportedly been excluded from meetings. Originally published on Latin Times Donald trump Israel Nuclear weapons © Latin Times. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
The Hill
16-06-2025
- Politics
- The Hill
Eric Trump on father's legacy: He's ‘killed every RINO' in Washington
Eric Trump credited his father Monday with toppling the GOP establishment and changing both political parties for generations on the 10th anniversary of President Trump's 'golden escalator' launch of his first successful White House campaign. 'He has killed every RINO there was in Washington, D.C.,' Eric Trump said in an interview on Fox Business Network's 'Mornings with Maria,' using a pejorative that refers to people deemed Republicans in name only. 'Now all of a sudden, you have a Republican Party that's united.' President Trump has often blasted his critics and other Republicans who stray from his positions as RINOs. Eric Trump, who is executive vice president of the Trump Organization, was speaking to host Maria Bartiromo on Monday about the company's new Trump Mobile cell service, but he deviated to reflect on his father's legacy following President Trump's return to the White House this year after losing a reelection bid four years earlier. 'There is no question that he has changed the trajectory of the political parties indefinitely but it's going to last,' the younger Trump said. 'This isn't a one cycle, two cycle.' 'It's going to last, literally, I believe, generations,' he added. The president's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., marked Monday's anniversary of the president's 2016 campaign launch with a social media post similarly highlighting its impact. '10 years ago today one outsider, sick of the bs and failure in Washington D.C. decided to get in the game and change the course of history!!!!' Trump Jr. wrote on X. Eric Trump, who has two young children, also said he believes that President Trump has helped spark political interest in younger people. 'My father has made politics fun again, right?' he said. 'It's cool again to be involved in politics.'
