'We Have A Plan': Heritage Foundation President Discusses Project 2025 At The RNC

3 months ago

Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts spoke at 'Policy Fest' on Monday.

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Transcript

00:00Man, what a pleasure to see so many great American patriots out in the audience.

00:05How many of you are ready to very steadily, calmly, peacefully take our country back?

00:12Yeah, I figured that'd be the response, and obviously we have so many people who are tuning

00:20in now and will tune in in coming days.

00:23Make no mistake, the whole purpose of gathering all of you here for PolicyFest, for making

00:28this broadcast worldwide, is to remind people that yes, especially after Saturday's tragedy

00:37and near-tragedy with our former president, it is always darkest before dawn.

00:44But to quote our former wonderful First Lady Melania Trump from yesterday, dawn is here

00:51again and we need to have smiles on our faces in spite of that tragedy, knowing that we

00:57have the resolve, we have the plan, and we also have the support of the American people

01:02to restore this country's greatness once again.

01:05Thanks for being part of it.

01:12Friends in the media, and I mean that with only a little bit of sarcasm, have spent a

01:17little bit of ink, rightly, talking about the conservative movement's plans for taking

01:23back this country.

01:25And we welcome that conversation because, as is evidenced over the last few days, the

01:30more we talk about policy, the more we talk about ideas, the more we welcome the conversation

01:37about the overreach of the federal government and the centralization of power, especially

01:42in Washington, D.C., the more our friends in the media, and now I do mean that genuinely,

01:47the more our friends in the media will recognize that the vast majority of American people

01:52understand it is time to get their sovereignty back against a federal government that frankly

01:58has run roughshod over them for too long.

02:02Sometimes people ask me, well, Kevin, you know, what really is the purpose of something

02:07like Project 2025, is it X or Y or Z, and what's the difference between the presidential

02:13campaign or the RNC platform?

02:16And my response would be the response that any of us who've been active in the conservative

02:21movement over the last half century would say, which is that it actually isn't about

02:25the project itself.

02:28The label's almost immaterial.

02:30The project is a representation of what a majority of Americans feel and believe and

02:37who have been begging, what they've been begging for, which is a plan for how you do all of

02:43these things that are the themes of this great gathering, not just dismantling the administrative

02:48state for the sake of some political science reason, but the real purpose, to restore self-governance

02:56to the American people so that they can, according to their choice, their customs, their habits,

03:03build their families, live in their communities, go about their lives and their businesses

03:08and their jobs, as we like to say, living the good life.

03:14You might say that the real purpose of this huge, broad-scale effort, unprecedented in

03:20the history of the conservative movement, isn't so much about policy per se, as it is

03:25to remind people, elites in Washington, New York, the left coast, Brussels, that time

03:36has come to stop forgetting about forgotten Americans, people who for too long have seen

03:43their businesses shuttered, people who for too long have seen their communities deteriorate,

03:48people in the Rust Belt who have seen the ravages of misguided policies that place an

03:54emphasis on elite interests and not an emphasis on the interests of the everyday American.

04:01Permit me an example that's personal.

04:04I was partly raised by my grandfather.

04:07I wrote about him recently in a First Things article and will be writing about him more

04:11this year because I think he really personifies what's going on here.

04:16You have someone in your family, no doubt, who personifies this point, which I think

04:20makes my Papa Pete really special.

04:24He had very little formal education.

04:26His first native language was Cajun French.

04:29He was a man's man.

04:30He was a man of great faith.

04:33He's a man who loved this country, served as a U.S. Marine in World War II.

04:38And while being a man's man, he also had this really special tender spot for the women

04:45in his life, for his kids and his grandkids, and especially for this country.

04:51He was a lifelong Democrat, but he loved Ronald Reagan.

04:56And I know if he were alive today, he would love Donald J. Trump.

05:07Why?

05:08Is it President Trump's policy record on the border?

05:11Sure.

05:12Is it his policy record across many policy areas?

05:15Sure.

05:16There's great agreement there between people like my grandfather and President Trump.

05:20But it's actually something deeper, and that's the point that I'm driving at here for you

05:24and your families and obviously speaking on behalf of all of us who've been part of this

05:28great project.

05:29And it is that for once in modern American history, we have a plan among a unified movement

05:37to speak on behalf of the everyday American, the forgotten American, not just someone like

05:42him from the Deep South, not even just people who have seen their communities in the Rust

05:48Belt deteriorate and diminish, but for new members of our coalition, working class, multi-ethnic

05:56coalition that for the first time in modern American history really does threaten the

06:02centralized power of the American left.

06:06The reason progressive Democrats hate these ideas so much is because they are a threat

06:13to their power.

06:15And so let us, while being very clear about the intentions of our language, also state

06:21very clearly that while there are many reasons to wake up today in the United States of America

06:27and be discouraged, to be despairing, to worry, that there are tens of millions of Americans

06:36who agree with us.

06:38We may not agree on every little detail.

06:40That's not the point.

06:41In the spirit of Reagan, in the spirit of President Trump, in the spirit of so many

06:44leaders, the point is to work together on that 80, 90, 95 percent of overlap and go

06:50fight like heck, steadily, with resolve, with great peacefulness, and show the radical

06:57left that once and for all we are controlling this country again.

07:02And so, thank you.

07:08And yes, that does mean that we have to get about the business of not just policy work

07:12and political work, not just about the business of electing good men and women to office,

07:18but we have to be about the business of restoring America in our communities, in our families,

07:25in our churches, our professional associations, our bowling leagues, our little league baseball

07:31teams.

07:32You see, that's really where America is.

07:35New York and Washington and the left coast want us focused on politics all the time.

07:41But the lesson of the last few days, and the motivation of something like Project 2025,

07:47ironically, is to make Washington a heck of a lot less important in our lives, so that

07:54we can go about our own lives the way we would like.

08:02And so, this entire conference, our work at Heritage for the rest of the year, is dedicated

08:08not just to all of you and to that huge majority of Americans, that huge group that we might

08:15call forgotten Americans, but personified by the fallen hero from Saturday, Cory Comperatore,

08:23whom we would honor given the tragedy that took his life, but I would dare say, not having

08:29met Cory, but feeling like I know him, that he personifies what this movement is about.

08:37A man who went to church every Sunday, a man who literally gave his life protecting

08:42his family, a man who is doing something that any of us from the far left to the far right

08:49should think we should be able to do at any point in this country and not be threatened

08:54with violence, and that's attend the political rally of our choice.

08:58But you see, Cory and his service as a firefighter, his witness as a husband, as a man of God,

09:06is someone who represents the vast, vast, vast majority of the American people.

09:13And so, I'll ask you, for the rest of this week, for the rest of this year, particularly

09:19when we're in moments when we're talking to family and friends who might have a different

09:24political perspective than us, to remind them it's not even so much about the policies themselves

09:31as it is about the spirit that Cory personified, which is to live our lives well in great virtue,

09:39but also fearlessly on behalf of not just in our faith above, but on our faith that

09:47this country, the United States, is still the greatest experiment in human freedom in

09:54history, and in spite of its warts, and in spite of its challenges, we now finally, after

10:00a long interlude, have leaders like President Trump and many other men and women and a plan

10:07that will actually do honor to Cory's sacrifice.

10:11God bless you as we begin this process of taking back this great country.

10:15Thanks for being part of it.

'We Have A Plan': Heritage Foundation President Discusses Project 2025 At The RNC

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