As former President Trump faces backlash from Democrats over his ties to the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025, the Biden-Harris administration has been working with prominent liberal think tanks and replacing them with new staff to turn progressive policy recommendations into executive actions and laws, which could have a negative impact on Harris' team.
The Center for American Progress (CAP) While it is the “most influential” think tank of the Biden era, publicly Boast It said it had transformed at least 10 policy recommendations into “executive measures and policy legislation.”
CAP's current president, Patrick Gaspard, visited President Biden's White House at least 20 times between December 2021 and January 2024, including five solo meetings with senior Biden Administration officials.
CAP Connections The Biden administration's involvement goes even deeper than Gaspard's, with at least 60 think tank alumni joining the administration, including Neera Tanden, a former president of CAP who served in several roles in the Biden administration, including senior adviser and chief of staff.
Pete Buttigieg regularly meets with dark-funded environmental groups, according to his calendar
Neera Tanden appeared at a Senate Budget Committee hearing on Capitol Hill on February 10, 2021. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnick, Pool)
She has been promoted to “Assistant to the President and Domestic Policy Advisor” in May 2023, succeeding Susan Rice. White House press release.
President Biden also hired CAP founder and chairman John Podesta as the White House's senior clean energy official for 2022. Podesta was tasked with overseeing the roughly $370 billion in climate spending appropriated by the Defeat Inflation Act.
The former Hillary Clinton campaign chairman was tapped by Biden to be his top climate diplomat earlier this year after former Secretary of State John Kerry stepped down from helping the campaign after facing backlash from Republican leaders over his ties to China dating back to his time at the CAP.
Fox News Digital first reported Tung's ties to a senior Communist Party official, Tung Chee-hua, who he has repeatedly called a “friend” and received numerous phone calls from.
CAP's influence within the Biden administration began months before he took office. In late 2020, six of the group's employees Participating in the Biden transition Teams from the Treasury Department, Federal Reserve Board, Department of Labor, Department of the Interior, National Security Council, and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.
White House clean energy chief John Podesta (left) was tapped to “continue to lead the global climate effort,” White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said. Podesta effectively replaces climate change envoy John Kerry (right). (Getty Images)
CAP organizations appear poised to advance a policy agenda on several key issues on progressives' wish list if the Biden administration, led by Vice President Kamala Harris, now a presidential candidate, were to continue for a second term.
CAP is Vocal support Both the term limits and the expansion of the Supreme Court are efforts promoted by Demand Justice, a left-leaning dark-money group co-founded by Harris' campaign adviser Brian Fallon and from which he left less than a year ago.
Liberal think tanks have signed onto several letters promoted by Demand Justice, which is reportedly planning a $10 million attack on conservative Supreme Court justices this year, “with activities ranging from opposition research on Supreme Court nominees to advocating for ethics reform at the Supreme Court.” Politico reported.
“The Supreme Court has let its masks slip this term by granting unconstitutional de facto immunity to future presidents who behave illegally and eviscerating the ability of public institutions and Congress to protect the American people from the misdeeds of right-wing special interests,” CAP said. This is stated on the company's website.
Biden's OMB nominee Neera Tanden received $731 million over two years from liberal nonprofits
President Biden listens to a speaker during an event at the South Court Auditorium in the White House complex, Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
CAP has also promoted a variety of other left-wing initiatives. Censorship of speech It is believed to be tax-funded “misinformation.” Student Loan Relief, Taxpayer-funded compensation, DEI CommitmentFederal Taxpayer-Funded Abortion Repeal of the Hyde Amendmentand Gradual Outside Gasoline vehicle.
Despite multiple reports of consumers complaining about the cost and lack of charging stations, CAP said in a 2024 post that “with soaring profits and expanding domestic manufacturing, U.S. automakers are well equipped to help the nation switch from fossil fuel-powered vehicles to electric vehicles.”
CAP's influence on Biden extended to his campaign messaging before he dropped out of the race. In 2022, The Washington Post reported. Biden's call of Trump as “super MAGA” was the result of a six-month research project by the CAP Action Fund and led by Biden aide Anita Dunn, who has also done consulting work for CAP.
Navin Nayak, president of CAP Action Fund, has visited President Biden's White House at least 20 times, according to a Fox News Digital review of White House visitor records.
Ron Klain, former chief of staff to President Biden and who served on the CAP Action Fund's board of directors for several years, has also repeatedly praised the fund's work on his X account.
The Center for American Progress receives support from all quarters, including you
Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at a campaign rally in Savannah, Georgia, on August 29, 2024. (Reuters/Elisabeth Franz)
Vice President Harris has been active with the Center for American Progress since her time as California's Attorney General. Joined a group She participated in the press conference by phone. She has also been participating in several events hosted by the liberal think tank, where her sister, Maya Harris, is also a senior fellow. 2013 Press Release.
“Maya has worked tirelessly across many sectors to make America a more inclusive country so all Americans can realize their full potential,” Tanden said, and looks forward to her involvement with CAP.
Despite extensive ties to the Biden administration, CAP Explosion Project 2025 On its website, the company describes it as a “far-right attack on America” and claims it “serves as a road map” for a “far-right presidential administration.”
In a statement to Fox News Digital on Sunday, a CAP spokesperson dismissed the remarks, saying the Heritage Foundation is “no longer a think tank.”
“When it comes to the Heritage Foundation and its activities, look no further than yesterday's New York Times article exposing the organization for creating fake digital content and spreading lies about the integrity of elections. Couple this with the organization's authoritarian stance and its president threatening a violent 'Second American Revolution' if he doesn't get his way, and it's no exaggeration to say that Heritage is an island. It's no longer a think tank,” the spokesperson said.
Presidential candidate Harris has repeatedly criticized Trump over Project 2025 in recent days. last week This was when she ran an ad linking Trump to the project.
Former President Trump speaks at a press conference at Trump Tower in New York, Friday, September 6, 2024. (Cheney Oh/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Project 2025 includes several senior officials who previously worked with Trump, but Trump has vehemently denied having any direct ties to the group.
A Project 2025 spokesperson told Fox News Digital on Sunday that “Project 2025 does not represent Donald Trump or his campaign,” and that the organization is “continuing our decades-long tradition of preparing policy and personnel recommendations for the next conservative president.”
“The Heritage Foundation has been publishing A Mission to Leadership since 1980, and President Reagan distributed copies of the book to his cabinet members during their first meeting,” the spokesperson continued. “The left is always readying letters of recommendation for liberal presidents, and they're just outraged that two people can play this game together.”
“The only reason the left is in such a frenzy over Project 2025 is because their proposals are attractive and supported by the American people, while their own proposals that are currently destroying our country are extremely unpopular,” the spokesperson added.
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“Agenda 47 and President Trump's Republican National Committee platform are the only policies President Trump supports for a second term,” Trump campaign spokesman Daniel Alvarez told Fox News Digital earlier this year.
“The Biden campaign and the DNC are lying and fear-mongering because they have nothing else to offer the American people,” she added. “Let's not forget that this is the same group that lied to the American people and hid Joe Biden's cognitive decline for years.”
Fox News Digital reached out to the Biden White House and Harris' campaign for comment but did not receive a response.
Fox News Digital's Joe Schoffstall and Thomas Catenacci contributed to this report.
