CNN turns fact-check against Kamala Harris' Project 2025 claims
A CNN fact checker turned his attention to Kamala Harris Wednesday, shooting down frequent attacks the Democratic candidate has aimed at Project 2025.
Host Jim Acosta played a clip of Harris making a claim about the blueprint for Trump’s next administration, before calling on fact-checker Daniel Dale to shoot it down.
“Donald Trump will give billionaires and corporations massive tax cuts, cut Social Security and medicare and make it easier for companies to deny overtime pay for workers,” Harris said in a rally speech given in North Carolina over the weekend.
It was the Social Security section that Dale took issue with.
“She's been saying that at a bunch of events dating back to July, that Project 2025, this conservative think tank plan that sets up proposals for a next Republican administration, says that Social Security should be cut under the next administration,” he said.
But he continued, “Nowhere in there does it call for Social Security cuts. In fact, it barely mentions Social Security.”
He said the only references to Social Security in the massive document are in passing.
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“Now, it does say that the federal budget should be balanced and Harris allies might tell you, well, you can't reasonably do that without Social Security cuts,” he added.
“I think that's a pretty indirect argument though, compared to what Vice President Harris is saying. Similarly Harris allies have said that Trump, in his budgets, proposed as president to cut Social Security.
“Sure, you can point that out. But, again, that's not what she's saying.”
During his presidency, Donald Trump repeatedly proposed cuts to Social Security, including a plan to permanently halt the payroll tax that funds the program. Trump has also suggested raising the retirement age and privatizing Social Security.
As a 2024 candidate, Trump has continued to signal his openness to cutting Social Security benefits.
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